Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett was born in Brooklyn, New York to Ellis Bartlett of Plymouth, Massachusetts and Sophia Ashmead of Philadelphia [REF].
Shortly after the death of his father in 1852 his mother moved the family to England,[REF] where he went to school at Torquay, before entering Christ Church, Oxford in 1867 (after a short time at St Mary Hall, Oxford) [REF].