author
Thomas Ellwood
1639–1713
A vivid early Quaker voice, he is remembered both for his own spiritual memoir and for a lasting link to John Milton. His life story blends religious conviction, family conflict, prison, and quiet literary history.
1 Audiobook
The History of Thomas Ellwood Written By Himself
by Thomas Ellwood
About the author
Born in October 1639 at Crowell in Oxfordshire, Thomas Ellwood became an English religious writer and an important early Quaker. As a young man he joined the Society of Friends, a choice that brought fierce opposition from his family and led to periods of suffering and imprisonment.
Ellwood is especially well known for his friendship with John Milton. He served for a time as a reader to the blind poet, and later recalled seeing the manuscript of Paradise Lost. His famous question about what Milton had to say of “Paradise found” is often linked with the story of Paradise Regained.
He also left behind one of the most enduring personal accounts from early Quaker history, The History of the Life of Thomas Ellwood. Through that memoir and his other religious writing, he remains a clear, human witness to the spiritual struggles and literary world of seventeenth-century England.