Томас Эллвуд: Ағылшын ақыны және діни ойшылы

English poet and Quaker theologian

Thomas Ellwood (October 1639 – 1 March 1714) was an English religious writer. He is remembered for his relationship with poet John Milton, and some of his writing has proved durable as well.

Ellwood was born in the village of Crowell, Oxfordshire, the son of a rural squire, Walter Ellwood, by his wife, Elizabeth Potman. From 1642 to 1646 the family lived in London. He was educated at Lord Williams's School in Thame. Ellwood became a Quaker after visiting Isaac Penington and his family at Chalfont St. Peter in Buckinghamshire. Penington's wife, Mary, widow of Sir William Springett, had known the Ellwoods while they lived in London. On a second visit in December 1659, when Thomas attended a Quaker meeting at a neighbouring farmhouse and made the acquaintance of Edward Burrough and James Nayler. Burrough's preaching impressed Ellwood, and after attending a second meeting at High Wycombe he joined the new sect and adopted their modes of dress and speech. His father resented his son's conversion, thrashed him for wearing his hat in his presence, and kept him confined in the house through the winter of 1660. At Easter, the Peningtons managed to move him to Chalfont St. Peter, where he stayed till Whitsuntide. He attended meetings with great assiduity. His father died about 1684 at Holton, and Ellwood was charged by his enemies with absenting himself from his funeral. But he behaved dutifully, according to his own account, to the last. He lived in retirement at Amersham for the greater part of his remaining years, writing constantly against internal divisions in the Quaker ranks, and denouncing in 1684 the heresy of George Keith. In 1690 he edited the journal of his friend, George Fox, and was long engaged on a history of the Old Testament. In 1707 and 1708 distraints were levied on him for the non payment of tithes. His wife died in April 1708, and he himself died 1 March 1714, at his house, Hunger Hill, Amersham. Both were buried in the Friends' burying place at New Jordan, Chalfont St. Giles.