Ellen Elizabeth Ellis

Ellen Elizabeth Ellis (; 14 March 1829 – 17 April 1895) was a New Zealand feminist and writer. She was born in England and moved to New Zealand in 1859.

Early life Ellen Elizabeth Colebrook was baptised on 3 May 1829 at Holy Trinity Church, the second of seventeen children (nine girls and eight boys) of Mary Ann May and William Colebrook, who was a butcher. The family lived at 106 High Street, Guildford, and the household also included six young nephews and nieces, taken in after they were orphaned in a cholera epidemic in London. published by Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh's Freethought Publishing, she noted how few teachers can tell apart the child who "can learn but will not", and the child "who would learn but cannot". in January 1864, but on 8 March her 6-year-old son drowned when he slipped through the ship's railings, despite attempts to save him. Whilst in England, her brother-in-law, James Ellis, encouraged her to express her opinions by writing a pamphlet on the unfair treatment of women. At her husband's request, she returned to New Zealand in February 1865, leaving John at a boarding-school.