His father had kept open house at Nocton for all comers, and every day twelve dishes were prepared whether or not any guests came; Ellys allowed £800 per year to maintain the custom.
[4] His learning took the direction of biblical criticism and bore fruit in his Fortuita Sacra; quibus subjicitur Commentarius de Cymbalis (Rotterdam, 1727).
After leaving politics Ellys devoted himself to antiquarian research and amassed at Nocton a fine library.
On 24 June 1742 an account of this library and some curiosities lately added to it formed the day's transactions of the Gentlemen's Society at Spalding, of which Ellys had been elected a member on 12 March 1729.
; and, secondly, to Sarah, daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Gould, who outlived him, and, remarrying 19 December 1745 with Sir Francis Dashwood, died Lady Despencer on 19 January 1769.
Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, in his satire Peter and my Lord Quidam, says that the chief competitors for his inheritance were 'Horace,' i.e. Horatio Walpole who wrote a Latin ode in Ellys's honour and gave him his portrait, and Hampden, i.e. Richard Hampden, who had married Ellys's sister.