ELY, Ezra Stiles, clergyman, born in Lebanon, Connecticut, 13 June 1786; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 18 June 1861. He was graduated at Yale College in 1803, studied theology with his father, Rev. Zebulon Ely, and was ordained pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Colchester, Connecticut, in 1806. He was then chaplain of the New York City hospital, subsequently pastor of the Pine Street Church, Philadelphia, till 1844, and of the Northern Liberties Church in that City till 1851, when he had a paralytic shock.

He undertook to establish a college and theological seminary in Missouri, in 1834, but reverses discontinued his efforts while others carried on the work. He was one of the founders and trustees of Jefferson medical College, for, in its pecuniary straits he bought the lot and erected the building where the institution now stands. He was active in works of benevolence, giving during his life about $50,000 to various institutions, including Jefferson medical College and Marion College, Mo. Washington College, Tennessee, gave him the degree of D. i). Dr. Ely edited gratuitously for several years a religious paper called the " Philadelphian." He published a memoir of his father, Rev. Zebulon Ely" " Visits of Mercy"; "The Contrast" ; "Ely's Journal" ; "Sermons on Faith"; " The Science of the Human Mind" (1819)" "Contrast between Calvinism and Hopkinsianism " (1811)" and "Endless Punishment " (1835). He also edited, with William McCorkle and Rev. Gregory Bedell, a "Collateral Bible, or Key to the Holy Scriptures" (3 vols., Philadelphia, 1826'8)" and left in manuscript a "History of the Churches of Philadelphia."