Fonds GB 0210 TIELIS - T. I. Ellis Collection of Davies family Deeds and Documents

David Davies (1745-1804) of Machynlleth, Montgomeryshire, and later Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire, skinner, had two sons: David Davies (1774-1824), banker, and Robert Davies (1789-1841). David Davies the younger married twice, firstly to Mabella Jones, and had a son, also called David Davies (1802-1836), and secondly to Blanche Maria Rogers (d 1846) of Carnachen-wen, Mathry, Pembrokeshire, which then became the family home. David Davies III appears to have lived at Carnachen-wen until about 1833, when he acquired Castle Green, Cardigan, Cardiganshire, where he died, in 1836, without issue. Robert Davies married Eliza Charles (1798-1876) of Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire, and had several children, including the Rev. David Charles Davies (1826-1891) and Robert Joseph Davies (1839-1892), who acquired Cwrtmawr, Llangeitho, Cardiganshire. He in turn married Frances Humphreys, descended from the Rev. Peter Williams. Their children included John Humphreys Davies (1871-1926), Walter Ernest Llewellyn Davies (1874-1941), and Annie Jane Davies (1873-1942), who married T. E. Ellis, MP (1859-1899) and had a son, Dr Thomas Iorwerth Ellis (1899-1970), teacher and lecturer, who lived in Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire.

Thomas Iorwerth Ellis (1899-1970), was an academic, teacher and author. He was born in London on 19 December 1899. His father, Thomas Edward Ellis, MP (1859-1899) had died over eight months earlier. His mother, Annie Jane Ellis, née Davies (1873-1942), of Cwrt-mawr, Llangeitho, Cardiganshire, was a descendant of the Davies family of Aberystwyth and Cwrtmawr and the Charles family of Carmarthen. She later married the Rev. Peter Hughes Griffiths (1871-1937).
Ellis was educated at Aberystwyth Grammar School, Westminster School, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, and Jesus College, Oxford. He was a classics master at Cardiff High School for Boys, 1924-1928, a lecturer at University College, Swansea, 1928-1930, headmaster of Rhyl County School, 1930-1940, and a lecturer in classics at Lampeter, 1940-1941, and Aberystwyth, 1941-1946. He was actively involved with the National Library of Wales and the University of Wales and served as Warden of the Guild of Graduates, 1943-1947. He received an honorary doctorate in 1967, and the OBE in 1968. T. I. Ellis was a founder of Undeb Cymru Fydd, an organization dedicated to preserving Welsh language and culture, and served as its secretary, 1941-1967. He broadcast regularly in both English and Welsh, notably on BBC Radio's Round Britain Quiz. Previously a Calvinistic Methodist, he was confirmed at St Asaph in November 1936, and became a lay reader in the Church in Wales in 1937. He became a member of both the Governing Body and the Representative Body of the Church in Wales.
Ellis edited three volumes of The Letters of T. C. Edwards (Aberystwyth, 1952-1953) and wrote The Development of Higher Education in Wales (Wrexham, 1935) and biographies of his father T. E. Ellis (2 volumes, Liverpool, 1944, 1948), his uncle J. H. Davies (Liverpool, 1963) and Sir Ellis Jones Ellis-Griffith (Llandybïe, 1969). From 1921 he travelled regularly throughout Wales in support of the Welsh Schoolboys' Camp Movement; these journeys became the genesis of his Crwydro series of books (Llandybïe, 1952-1971).
T. I .Ellis married Mary Gwendoline Headley (Mari Ellis) in April 1949 and they had two children, Marged (1950- ) and Rolant (1953- ). He died at his Aberystwyth home on 20 April 1970.