Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pugh, Ellis
PUGH, ELLIS (1656–1718), Welsh quaker, was born in the parish of Dolgelly in June 1656. In 1686 he and his family sailed for the quaker settlement in Pennsylvania. They had a stormy passage, and were detained for six months at Barbados. Pugh paid a visit in 1706 to Wales, returning in 1708 to Philadelphia, where he died on 3 Oct. 1718. In 1721 there was published at Philadelphia a tract by him entitled ‘Annerch i'r Cymry’ (‘Address to the Welsh People’), which was probably the first Welsh book printed in America. He speaks in particular to the ‘craftsmen, labourers, and shepherds, men of low degree, of my own quality,’ and bids them be ‘wiser than their teachers.’ The tract was reprinted in this country in 1782 and 1801 (London); an English translation by Rowland Ellis and David Lloyd appeared at Philadelphia in 1727, and was reprinted at London in 1739.
[Rowlands's Cambrian Bibliography; Hanes Llenyddiaeth Gymreig, by C. Ashton, pp. 158–9.]