Ellen Ellis (1 book)

Ellen Ellis is a key early feminist novelist of New Zealand. She was born in England in 1820, the second of seventeen children. Her parents, Mary and William Colebrook, were fervent Calvinist-Methodists and strict teetotallers and Ellis inherited their beliefs. Educated at a ‘Seminary for Young Ladies, Ellis learnt the female accomplishments of music, needlework and drawing. Throughout her life… (more)

Ellen Ellis is a key early feminist novelist of New Zealand. She was born in England in 1820, the second of seventeen children. Her parents, Mary and William Colebrook, were fervent Calvinist-Methodists and strict teetotallers and Ellis inherited their beliefs. Educated at a ‘Seminary for Young Ladies, Ellis learnt the female accomplishments of music, needlework and drawing. Throughout her life she yearned for a wider, more liberal education. Ellis married Oliver Ellis in 1852. He was nominally Anglican, a social drinker, and a firm believer that a man was the head of the house. Ellis sought to reform Oliver and gain a measure of independence over household finances. Bitter arguments dominated their married life. Immigration to New Zealand in 1859 brought few changes. Ellis’ outspoken sympathy for Maori during the land wars antagonised both her husband and Auckland society. Relations between husband and wife improved after the death of their younger son Thomas. Oliver joined the Good Templars and Ellis’ religious views were modified when she embarked on a programme of self-education. This education involved what Ellis termed ‘five finger mental exercises,’ making lists of subjects about which she had strong opinions and looking at these issues with fresh eyes to see if she was unbiased (Vera Colebrook, Ellen: A Biography, Dublin, Arlen House, 1980, 139). While her ‘crepe and bombazine theology’ was softened as a result of this reassessment, her views about the importance of morality, the evils of alcohol, and the need for female emancipation were strengthened (Colebrook, 140). Ellis began writing a pamphlet on suffrage issues to articulate her views and this eventually became a novel. Everything is Possible to Will is strongly autobiographical. Indeed, Ellis’ son William burnt as many copies of the novel as possible, deeply offended at the picture of Oliver that emerges in its pages. Ellis died in Auckland in 1895.

(Biography quoted from: The Puritan Paradox: An Annotated Bibliography of Puritan and Anti-Puritan New Zealand Fiction, 1860-1940 : Part 1: The Puritan Legacy; by Kirstine Moffat; accessed at http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/name-111338.html )