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Ellwood who insisted on wearing their hats during worship, and he travelled with Fox through the west of England on an organising expedition. In 1670 he was present at the debate at High Wycombe between Jeremy Ives, a baptist, and William Penn. When the Conventicle Act became law in July 1670, and the quakers were at the mercy of corrupt informers, Ellwood energetically sought to circumvent their tricks, and proceeded against two named Aris and Lacy for perjury. In 1674 he was busily engaged in a controversy with Thomas Hicks, a baptist, who had written against quakerism. Ellwood issued many broadsides charging Hicks with forgery. He also wrote much against tithes from 1678 onwards, and attacked with great bitterness one William Rogers, who in 1682 ignored the authority of Penn and Fox, and denied their right to control the quaker community. Ellwood's account of his own life ceased in July 1683, when he was protesting against the injustice of treating quakers' meetings as riotous assemblies, and had himself just been threatened with prosecution for seditious libel because he had warned the constables to beware of informers. 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 with especial vigour 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, 'a solid, weighty woman' (according to Ellwood's biographer), died 5 or 9 April 1708, and he himself died 1 March 1713–14, at his house. Hunger Hill, Amersham. Both were buried in the Friends' burying-place at New Jordan, Chalfont St. Giles.

His numerous works include the following; 1. 'An Alarm to the Priests,' 1660. 2. 'A Fresh Pursuit,' 1674, and 'Forgery no Christianity.' 1674, two tracts attacking Thomas Hicks, the baptist. 3. 'The Foundation of Tithes shaken,' 1678; 2nd edition, 1720. 4, 'An Antidote against the Infection of William Rogers' Book,' 1682. 5. 'A Caution to Constables... concerned in the execution of the Conventicle Act,' 1683, 6. 'A Discourse concerning Riots,' 1683, 7. 'A Seasonable Dissuasive from Persecution,' 1683, 8. 'Rogero Mastix,' 1685. 9. 'An Epistle to Friends,' 1686, 10. 'The Account from Wickham,' 1689. 11. 'Thomas Ellwood's Answer to... Leonard Key,' 1693? 12. 'Deceit Discovered,' 1693. 13. 'A Fair Examination of a Foul Paper,' 1693, deals with the heresies of Rogers, John Raunce, and Leonard Key, who issued scandalous statements about Ellwood. 14. 'A Reply to an Answer lately published to [William Penn's] "Brief Examination and State of Liberty,"' 1691. 15. 'An Epistle to Friends... warning them of George Keith,' 1694. 16. 'A Further Discovery of that Spirit of Contention... in George Keith,' 1694. 17. 'Truth Defended,' 1695. 18. 'An Answer to George Keith's Narrative,' 1696, deals with George Keith's dissenting views. 19. 'A sober Reply on behalf of the People called Quakers to two petitions against them,' 1699 and 1700. 20. 'The Glorious Brightness of the Gospel Day,' 1707, 21. 'Sacred History, or the Historical Part of the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament,' 1705, fol. 22. 'Sacred History, or the Historical Part of the New Testament,' 1709. Both these works were reprinted together in 1720, 1778, 1794, and (New York) 1834. 23. 'Davideis: a Sacred Poem in Five Books,' 1712, 1722, 1727, 1749, 1763, 1796, begun before 1688, and before the author had read Cowley's 'Davideis.' 24. 'A Collection of Poems on various subjects.' n.d. 25. 'The History of the Life of Thomas Ellwood... written by his own hand,' first published in 1714, with a supplement by J[oseph] W[yeth], continuing the work from 1683, where the autobiography stops abruptly, till the date of Ellwood's death in 1713-14. A number of testimonies are prefixed: 'An Answer to some Objections of a Moderate Enquirer,' i.e. Robert Snow, and an 'Account of Tythes in General,' appear towards the close. Ten other pieces are enumerated at the end of the volume, in a list of manuscripts 'left behind him.' The autobiography, which includes many hymns and religious verses, has been reprinted many times (2nd edition, 1714; 3rd edition, 1765; 4th edition, 1791; 5th edition, 1825; 6th edition, 1855). The first American edition appeared in Philadelphia in 1775. Professor Henry Morley included it in his 'Universal Library,' 1885. Testimonies by Ellwood concerning Isaac Pennington (1681), George Fox (1694), and Oliver Sansom (1710), are published in the respective lives. An interesting volume in Ellwood's handwriting, belonging to Anna Huntley of High Wycombe, includes an elegy on Milton. 