Thomas Ellwood

Born in October 1639 at Crowell, Oxfordshire, he was raised in a gentry family and educated at Lord Williams's School in Thame. As a young man he was drawn to the Religious Society of Friends after hearing Quaker preaching, a decision that brought sharp conflict with his family but shaped the rest of his life.

He became an energetic Quaker writer and controversialist, and his autobiography is one of the main reasons he is still read. It offers a vivid first-person account of persecution, prison, conversion, and everyday Quaker life. He is also closely linked with John Milton: Ellwood read Latin to the blind poet, and tradition credits a question from him with helping inspire Paradise Regained.

He died on 1 March 1714. Some reference works describe him as 1639–1713 because his death fell before the old English New Year date, but modern sources often give 1714.