Dr Henry Ellis Papers

This collection consists of the personal correspondence of Dr Henry Ellis and prescription books, daybooks and letters patent relating to the apothecary business he ran in Bangor with his son Dr Ellis Henry Ellis.

Prescription books (reference numbers: 606-611) range from 1867 to 1882 and give names of patients, type of illnesses and diseases, medicines and charges etc. Letters (9810-9858) are from Dr Henry Ellis to his wife, Anne Ellis, and with the exception of two are addressed from Dublin between August 1850 and April 1851 while he was taking a course in midwifery at a hospital there. The letters are mainly concerned with news of home and the Bangor shop, such as the ordering of goods (including tobacco and gunpowder!), staff problems and payment of bills etc. Two letters (9839 and 9840)are written from London and mention the Great Exhibition of 1851 and describe some of the exhibits at the British Museum.

Also contains two letters patent (dated 1862 and 1865) with Great Seal attached, granting Dr Henry Ellis licence and authority to "exercise and vend" an invention for improvements in the manufacture of silica compounds in the production of glazing compounds and dyes.

Henry Ellis (died 1869), physician and surgeon, ran an apothecary business at High Street, Bangor, with his second son Ellis Henry Ellis (1848-1882), also a physician and surgeon. He and wife Anne had nine other children including Catherine (1846-1922), the eldest daughter, who was one of the first women to undertake training as a medical doctor. She began studying at Queen Charlotte's Hospital, London but her medical career was ended by her father's sudden death. For the rest of her life she was involved in social work, including the pioneering development of reading facilities for the blind in North Wales. Another sister, Grace Ellis was Assistant Librarian at the University of Wales, Bangor, (formerly the University College of North Wales).

Material was received on separate occasions and incorporated in chronological order into the General Collection of Bangor Manuscripts .

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Description compiled by Anne Lenaghan, November 2001

Item level word-processed list is available at the Archives Department of the University of Wales, Bangor. Reference numbers: General Collection of Bangor Manuscripts: 606-611, 9810-9858, 20581-20582

Usual copyright conditions apply. Reprographics are made at the discretion of the Archivist.

Also held at the Archives Department of the University of Wales, Bangor are the Dr Ellis Henry Ellis Papers .