Ellis Rowlands had during the Puritan interregnum, been asked to do ministerial duty in several important spheres, which he had to relinquish soon after the Restoration. However, Nonconformist writers have lost their way badly in describing him as reduced to "extreme necessities", and his wife as keeping school for a livelihood, "and he was forced to make patterns (samplers?) for the girls to sew by". Quite otherwise : Rowlands had married a dr. of Robert Griffith of Llanfair isgaer, grand-dr. to William Thomas of Coed Alun and Aber (J.E.Griffith : Pedigrees, 56); that he was not looked askance at by that powerful Anglican family is proved by the fact that in 1677 (15 August) he, with three others, were asked to examine a document of 1664 whose exact terms were of primary importance to the Coed Alun succession of heirs (E.R.'s signature at the foot can be examined in Bangor MS. 2065). Moreover, Palmer places his death "about 1683"; this will implies it did not happen till 1691.
The terms of the will show him to be moderately well-endowed with the things of this world, and to have died a confirmed Nonconformist, also he would not entrust all his "written papers and manuscripts wherever to be found" to the use and disposal of Richard Edwards of Nanhoron, one of the most prominent Puritan laymen in all Wales; for all that, E.R. was on excellent terms with Thomas Jones, rector of Clocaenog, to whom he bequeathed "2 pieces of Gold and six of such Books as he will choose".
A bequest to Beaumaris School and to the poor of the town seems to prove he was an Anglesey man; the executor named in the will was his brother Richard of ...winan, and so far all research has failed by scientific surmises to supply the missing letters. The original lies in the probate Office at Bangor.