MR. ELLIS HUGHES. OLEY, BURKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Ellis was born in Wales in 1687 and was either 12 or 13 years old when he traveled with his family on the Robert and Elizabeth to Pennsylvania.

Ellis was John Hughes's third child, following Jane (1683) and Rowland (1685). Ellis married Jane Foulke in August 1713 while still living at Gwynedd.

Jane Foulke, who was three years older than Ellis, came from the same area (Gwynedd) of Wales and also had migrated on the 1698 voyage of the Robert and Elizabeth. Ellis and Jane had seven children. The third, a daughter, apparently died at birth and remained un-named. Ellis died in 1764 at age 76 or 77 and Jane followed two years later at age 81.

In the Oley Valley, Ellis clearly made his living by farming and operating his sawmill, but he appears to have been more prominent for his leadership role in the local Exeter Society of Friends. Records indicate that Ellis was instrumental in the success of the Society of Friend's Exeter Meeting (located in Oley Valley) during the middle 18th century.

He was characterized as the most prominent minister, or "Weightiest Friend" in Quaker terms. His memorialist wrote of him that he embodied the Quaker ideal of charity, commitment, and effort. A many-paragraphed commemoration in Quaker records uses phrases such as "good example," "meek and loving," "instructively cheerful," "affectionate husband," "tender parent," and "kind master."

At the same time, he was "...a lover of good order in the church, and well knew the dangerous tendency of undue liberty." This referred to the Quaker code that held members to account for misconduct. Ellis, for example probably participated in deliberations regarding one of his own sons, William, who was dismissed from Exeter Meeting membership in 1754, after three disciplinary episodes due to his excessive proclivity to drink.

That Ellis Hughes was the "Weightiest Friend" meant, in my judgment, that he was an important leader in the Exeter Friends, Oley Valley, Pennsylvania community during the apex of Quaker influence in Pennsylvania and in America. At the time, religion was almost indistinguishable from government.

Ellis took ill, according to Quaker records, at the 1764 funeral of his son (and our next ancestor), John, and died eleven days later. Quaker records list them both as being buried in the Exeter Meeting burial ground.

Ellis married Jane Foulke , daughter of Edward Foulke and Ellin (Eleanor) Hugh , on 15th Jun 1713 in Gwynedd, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Jane was born on 10th January 1684 in Merionethshire, Wales and died on 7 Aug 1766 in Oley Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, at age 82.

From Rootsweb tree of Gary L. Roberts.