Ellis was an author, artist, and property developer. She spent a great deal of time in Cornwall from the 1890s.
She met Havelock Ellis (1859-1939) through their membership of ‘The Fellowship of the New Life’, a part of which broke away to form the Fabian Society in 1884. In 1883, Havelock Ellis had been one of the original founders of the movement as a whole, in which Olive Schreiner, Ramsay Macdonald, Bessie and Isabella Ford, and Ernest Rhys had also joined.
She married Havelock Ellis in 1891 but was openly lesbian, having several affairs with women of which her husband was aware. Their open marriage was the central subject in Havelock Ellis's 1939 autobiography, My Life.
She had a small cottage farm in Cornwall, near St Ives, where they both wrote and spent significant time; she was also interested in dairy work, the breeding of animals, and other practical activities. One of her activities was developing farm cottages for letting to newcomers and visitors to Cornwall. She wrote and spoke on lecture tours on her varied social interests. Ellis was a friend of the artistic Cayley-Robinson family and of Cicely and Alfred Sidgwick, both of whom she met through letting accommodation to them.
Works in our collections
