Ellwood, Thomas

, a writer of some reputation among the Quakers, was born at Crowell, near Thame, in Oxfordshire, in 1639, where he received such education as his father, a man in poor circumstances, could afford. In his twenty-first year, the preaching of one Edward Burroughs induced him to join the society of the friends, and soon after he became a writer and a preacher among them. His principal work was entitled “Sacred History, or the historical part of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament,” 2 vols. fol. He appears to have sometimes uffered imprisonment in the reign of Charles II. in common with other dissenters; but his confinement on these occasions was neither long nor severe. The only incident in his life worth noticing is his introduction to Milton, to whom he acted for some time as reader, and to whom he is said to have suggested the “Paradise Regained,” by asking him, “Thou hast said much here of Paradise lost; but what hast thou to say of Paradise found?” Ellwood died March 1, 1713. He was a man of considerable abilities, and by dint of study and attention made up for the deficiencies of his early education. His life, written by himself, is rather tedious, but affords many interesting particulars of the history of the sect. ²