When Elijah S. Ellis was born on 25 November 1768, in Orange, North Carolina, United States, his father, Nimrod Ellis, was 18 and his mother, Martha Shipley, was 23. He married Patience Collins on 20 July 1791, in Johnston, North Carolina, United States. He lived in Jackson, Tennessee, United States in 1850. He died on 4 December 1856, in Putnam, Tennessee, United States, at the age of 88, and was buried in Ellis Cemetery, Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee, United States.