ELLIS, RICHARD (1865 - 1928), librarian and bibliographer
Date of birth: 1865
Date of death: 1928
Parent: John Ellis
Gender: Male
Occupation: librarian and bibliographer
Area of activity: History and Culture; Literature and Writing; Scholarship and Languages
Author: William Llewelyn Davies
Born 14 October 1869, son of John Ellis, lime merchant, of Aberystwyth. He spent some time in a school kept by David Samuel and at the University College of Aberystwyth, before proceeding to Jesus College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1901, later getting a research fellowship which enabled him to start his life's work - the collection of all the available materials relating to the life and work of Edward Lhuyd. He published the first-fruits of his research in The Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1906-7, under the title ' Some incidents in the life of Edward Lhuyd '; but he did not finish his work of arranging his materials for the publication of a standard work on the life and times of Lhuyd, and left them in his will to the University College library, Aberystwyth. His work on Lhuyd made him a specialist in the history of many other Welshmen who were connected with Oxford. He published (a) Facsimiles of Letters of Oxford Welshmen (Henry Vaughan the Silurist, Sir Leoline Jenkins, Edward Lhuyd, Ellis Wynne, Edward Samuel, Moses Williams), and (b) An Elizabethan Broadside in the Welsh Language, being a Brief granted in 1591 to Sion Salusburi of Gwyddelwern, Merionethshire. The first of these two is not dated, but the second was published in 1904.
Towards the end of 1907 Ellis took charge of the Welsh library at Aberystwyth College, and within a year was elected principal assistant to Sir John Ballinger, the first librarian of the National Library of Wales. He did not, however, remain long in his new post but returned to Oxford to try to finish his research. He died 6 September 1928 at Oxford and was buried at Aberystwyth.
Author
- Sir William Llewelyn Davies, (1887 - 1952)
- The Welsh Gazette, 13 September 1928
- The Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard, 14 September 1928
- T. Gwynn Jones, Cymeriadau (Wrecsam 1933), 105-16
Sources
- Wikipedia Article: Richard Ellis
Further Reading
- Wikidata: Q7325487
Additional Links
Published date: 1959
Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-RUU/1.0/
Corrections
ELLIS, RICHARD (1865 - 1928), librarian and bibliophile
see the article, The Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1977, on Ellis's career and his work on Edward Lhuyd which corrects and supplements the original entry. Ellis was born on 27 December 1865. He was educated, probably, at a private grammar school in Aberystwyth run by David Samuel before he entered the University College at Aberystwyth in 1889. He was awarded a scholarship to Jesus College Oxford in 1893 but, for family reasons, he did not enter the college until 1898. He was again awarded a scholarship, on the recommendation of R.L. Poole, in 1899. He graduated B.A. in 1902 and M.A. in 1908. At Oxford, he began to work on the manuscripts and letters of Edward Lhuyd with the intention of publishing these papers. In 1908, he was appointed, in succession to J. Glyn Davies, the Welsh Librarian at the University College, Aberystwyth and he moved to the National Library when it opened in 1909. But he was not happy there and he returned to Oxford with a research scholarship in 1912. From 1916 to the end of World War I, he was the only assistant librarian at the Codrington Library in All Souls College. Early in the 1920s, Ellis returned to Aberystwyth. He spent a few weeks during 1927 in Dublin where he pursued his research on Lhuyd. For the same reason, he went to Oxford in July 1928 and there he died. In 1903, Ellis published his Facsimiles of Letters of Oxford Welshmen on Whatman paper. In addition to the facsimile 'broadside' published in 1904, he published another facsimile in 1907 - Carol o gyngor yn galennig i'r Cymru 1658 Mathew Owen. A selection of his English verse is published in the article cited above.
Author
- Evan David Jones, (1903 - 1987)
Published date: 1997
Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/
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