ELLWOOD, THOMAS (1639-1714), English author, was born at Crowell, Oxfordshire. His family moved to London while he was still young, and he met a Quaker family named Pennington, and himself became a Quaker. They introduced him to Milton, to whom he went every afternoon as Latin reader, and about whom his autobiography contains much information. His visits to Milton were interrupted by imprisonments for Quakerism. His story that after reading the ms. of Paradise Lost he suggested the idea of Paradise Regained seems improbable (see the chapter on Milton in Cambridge History of English Literature vol. vii.). Ellwood wrote polemical works in defence of Quakerism such as Forgery No Christianity (1674) and The Foundation of Tithes Shaken (1678) ; also some poems, including a Davideis in five books.