MR. ROWLAND ELLIS, PLYMOUTH, PENNSYLVANIA.
Ganwyd yn y flwyddyn 1650 yn Bryn Mawr, plwyf Dolgellau, yn fab i Ellis ap Rees.Priododd ddwywaith: yn gyntaf â Margaret, merch Ellis Morris; ag wedyn efo Margaret, merch Robert ab Owen.
Ymunodd â'r Crynwyr o gwmpas y flwyddyn 1672, a chan ei fod yn gadarn yn y ffydd newydd bu raid iddo ddioddef erlid a charchar. Wedi i William Penn sefydlu Pennsylvania anfonodd Ellis un Thomas Owen drosodd gyda'i deulu i ddewis lle i ymsefydlu ynddo. Ar 16eg Hydref, 1686, hwyliodd Ellis a'i fab Rowland a thua 100 o gymdogion o Milford Haven. Cyraeddasant Philadelphia ym mis Ebrill 1687, ac ymsefydlodd Ellis yn Bryn Mawr (Lower Merion wedi hynny). Wedi gorffen trefniadau i wneud hwn yn gartref newydd iddo dychwelodd i Gymru yn 1688, ac ymhen peth amser aeth yn ôl i Pennsylvania gydag aelodau eraill o'i deulu. Gan ei fod yn ddyn o allu, wedi cael addysg dda, ac o deulu gweddol gefnog yng Nghymru, daeth yn amlwg ym mywyd cyhoeddus a chrefyddol y dalaith newydd.
Yn 1700 fe'i dewiswyd i gynrychioli Philadelphia yn 'senedd' ei dalaith. Yr oedd yn weithiwr selog gyda'r Crynwyr, a dywedir y byddai'n gweinidogaethu iddynt yn yr iaith Gymraeg.
Cyfieithodd Annerch i'r Cymru, 1721, llyfr Ellis Pugh wedi ei ddiwygio gan David Lloyd, yn Saesneg, a chyhoeddwyd ef yn Philadelphia yn 1727 o dan y teitl A Salutation to the Britains. Cafwyd argraffiadau yn Llundain yn 1732, 1739, a 1793. Efallai mai ei fab ROWLAND ELLIS a fu'n gwasnaethu'r 'Society for the Propagation of the Gospel … ' fel ysgolfeistr yn Burlington, New Jersey.
Prynodd dir yn Plymouth, Pennsylvania, ac ymsefydlodd yno wedi iddo werthu ei dir yn Merion. Bu farw yn gynnar ym mis Medi 1731 yn nhŷ ei fab-yng-nghyfraith John Evans, yn Gwynedd, a chladdwyd ef yng nghladdfa'r Crynwyr yn Plymouth.
Y mae enw 'Bryn Mawr College for Women,' Pennsylvania, yn atsain o enw cartref Rowland Ellis yn Sir Feirionnydd.
Y Bywgraffiadur Cymreig.
MR. ROWLAND ELLIS, PLYMOUTH, PENNSYLVANIA.
William Penn, the Chiefest of the Quakers, had already projected his plans of a government founded on brotherly love, and from him a large number of Welch Quakers, led by Rowland Ellis, purchased five thousand acres of land in Pennsylvania. They arrived in America in 1682, another colony coming in 1686.Rowland became a "Friend" in 1672 and he was imprisoned in 1676. He emigrated on 16th October 1686 arriving Pennsylvania. He became a Quaker Minister for The Society of Friends.
Rowland Ellis' family has been traced back to Edward I, King of England, through his son Thomas of Norfolk.
Rowland first married Margaret Morris (b.1655, d.1673) about 1670 in Wales. She was the daughter of Ellis Morris, of Dolgun and also Rowland's cousin. They had two daughters: Ann Ellis (b.Abt1671, d.? in Wales) and Jane Ellis (b.Abt1673 in Wales, d.? as spinster in PA).
Anecdote: Rowland's daughter, Ann Ellis, "married out," in 1696, to the Rev. Richard Johnson, of the "Established," or P. E. Church, who was the curate of Dolgell and had issue. Mr. Ellis was much attached to his wayward daughter, but as she was disowned. Her father did not know, in 1699, if she was living, and wrote to inquire "whether she is quite dead."
After Rowland's first wife died in 1673 he married Margaret Verch Humphreys during 1675 in Wales. Like his first wife she is reported to also have been his cousin.
Between 1676 and 1697 they had 5 children that they named: Elizabeth, Rowland Jr., Robert, Eleanor and Catherine Ellis.
Input in May 2018 by Jean .. Find a Grave member #47249869
Rowland Ellis was a Welsh Quaker leader. He was the owner of the farm of Bryn Mawr near Dolgellau, Wales. He became a Quaker, along with a number of other inhabitants of Dolgellau, after a visit to the town by George Fox in 1657. As a result of religious persecution, he and others emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1686. The town of Bryn Mawr in Pennsylvania is named after Ellis's farm. In 1688 he briefly returned to Wales to set his affairs in order, but went back to Pennsylvania, where in 1700 he was elected to represent Philadelphia in the provincial assembly.
Ellis bought a tract of land in Plymouth which he made his home after selling his Merion plantation. He died on July 1st, 1731 at the home of his son-in-law, John Evans, in Gwynedd, and was buried in the Friends' burial ground at Plymouth.
His Bryn Mawr (meaning Big Hill) is located in northern Wales, just outside the town of Dolgellau (Dolgelly). The county was historically called Merionethshire but is now called Gwynedd.
Find a Grave.
MR. ROWLAND ELLIS, PLYMOUTH, PENNSYLVANIA.
Two centuries ago the religious teachings of William Penn reached these secluded glens of Merioneth, were examined, believed and accepted by a sufficient number to form a society, and to build a meeting-house. Witnessing for truth and righteousness, and growing in numbers, aroused the persecuting spirit of the clergy of the Established Church, who secured the aid of the civil magistracy to suppress the pestilent heresy and the godly example of those true and faithful disciples of Christ, a thorn in their flesh, and a swift witness against the prevailing vices and ungodliness of the times, which they made no special and effectual effort to discourage or suppress.Suffering from persecution many of these Quaker families emigrated to Pennsylvania and settled near Philadelphia. an old and interesting book, "A Collection of Memorials Concerning the People Called Quakers." printed in Philadelphia originally, but reprinted in London, 1780, loaned by a friend, I find many facts illustrating the principles, character and sufferings of these good people who lived in the vicinity of this town; and by a personal visit to their old meeting-house and cemetery my interest has been deepened.
Following an up-hill and winding road three miles, we reached, on the mountain side, a farm-house, called "Tyddyn-y-Gareg" (Rock-farm), an old, antiquated, dilapitated building, where two hundred years ago a Quaker family lived, and near which is the old Quaker graveyard, surrounded by a stone wall five feet high. The graves are unmarked, but there are several headstones of recent date, with Welsh inscriptions. The last Quaker burial was some fifty years ago.
The meeting house, thirty by thirty-five feet, of rough stone, gray with age, is a little distance from the graveyard. It is now called "Tabor," and used as a house of worship by the congregationalists. Between this sacred spot and the town is a hill farm called "Bryn Mawr" (great hill), where an ancient and esteemed Quaker named Rowland Ellis lived. He was born in 1650, and convinced of the truth in 1672 united with the Quaker Society, and on account of his testimony suffered five years of imprisonment. In 1680 this true disciple of William Penn, because he would not violate his conscience by taking the oath of allegiance, was arrested. The Judges, before whom he appeared and stoutly refused, condemned him to suffer a long imprisonment, said: "That in case the Quakers refused the second time to take this oath, they should be proceeded against as traitors, the men hanged and quartered and the women burned."
Rowland Ellis released from prison in 1686, went to Pennsylvania, bought land a few miles miles out of Philadelphia and came back for his family. He called his new home after the farm on which he had lived in Wales, "Bryn Mawr," which is now the name of a station, with beautiful surroundings, a few out on the Pennsylvania Railroad, Rowland Ellis was a minister, distinguished for his piety and service, an able and advocate for civil and religious liberty, the doctrines and discipline of society and the best interests of humanity.
He died at the house of his son-in-law, John Evans, in 1729, buried at the Plymouth Burying-ground, and of whom it is said, "He rests, enjoying the reward of the righteous, and his works follow him."
B. W. CHIDLAW. Dolgelley, August 9th, 1889.
MR. ROWLAND ELLIS, PLYMOUTH, PENNSYLVANIA.
OUR ancient and esteemed friend Rowland Ellis, was born in the year 1650, in Merionethshire North Wales, convinced of the truth about the twenty-second year of his age, suffered several years imprisonment with constancy on account of his testimony, it being then a time of sore persecution; the two judges who committed him with many others for refusing to take the oath of allegiance and supremacy, declared openly at the assizes, "That in case they refused a second time to take it, they should be proceeded against as traitors, the men hanged and quartered, and the women burned."In 1686 he came over into Pennsylvania to prepare for a settlement for his wife and family, with whom he return'd in 1697. He was endued with a gift in the ministry, and tho' not very frequent in appearance therein, his service was acceptable and to edification; being of sound judgment, ready and willing to assist his neighbours and friends in all cases civil or religious when desired. He was zealous for supporting our christian discipline, and exemplary in conducting himself agreeable therewith, sometimes saying "If the hedge of discipline was not kept up, the labour of the husbandman would soon be laid waste."
He was careful in educating his children religiously, by timely endeavouring to inculcate in them the principles of piety and virtue; a practice of his tending thereto, was, having meetings frequently in his family, which he long continued. In the last monthly-meeting he attended he was taken unwell, but afterwards said to divers friends present, "I am glad I was here to day, for I had a lively meeting, and though I now feel much weakness and the infirmities attending my advanced age, yet I can say, truth is as dear and as sweet as ever." He also said, Satan sometimes lies in wait like a roaring lion to devour me, but I find he is chained by a secret hand which limits his power, so that he cannot harm me.
His indisposition continued a few days, which he bore with christian patience, expressing "His sense of his near arrival at the haven of rest and quiet, where none could make him afraid." He expired at the house of his son-in-law John Evans, in the eighti|eth year of his age, and was interr'd in friends burying-ground at Plymouth, (to which particular meeting he belonged) in the seventh month 1729. Concerning whom we trust it may be said, he rests, enjoying the reward of the righteous, and his works do follow.