He was the son of Rev. Zebulon Ely, and was born in Lebanon, Connecticut in 1786.Curtis Dahl, "The Clergyman, the Hussy, and Old Hickory: Ezra Stiles Ely and the Peggy Eaton Affair," Journal of Presbyterian History 52, no. 2 (Summer 1974): 137-155. In 1803, he graduated from Yale at the age of seventeen and was licensed to preach a year later. In October 1806, he was settled as pastor of the church in Colchester, Connecticut (Westchester parish). In 1810, he left to begin his duties as the Stated Preacher of the New York Almshouse under the sponsorship of the Presbytery of New York, one of the largest churches in the city at the time. He served the Almshouse in the years 1811 and 1813, and wrote two journals documenting his experience.
