Richard Ely, a widower, the first of the family who came to this country, emigrated from Plymouth, England, about 1660 or 1670, accompanied by his youngest son Richard, and settled in Lyme, Ct. (Goodrich, Samuel Griswold. "Recollections of a lifetime." NY : Miller, Orton & Co., 1856, v.2, pg. 533.
Arrived in Lyme, Conn. in 1660. He may have lived for a while in Boston. He owned 3,000 acres of land at Lyme (History of the Ely re-union held at Lyme, Conn., July 10th, 1878. Salem, Mass. : Higginson Book Co. (reprint), pg. 48.
Richard took possession of lands at Lyme, Conn. which had been his wife's (Elizabeth). The estate was known as the "Great Meadow." Richard was a shipping merchant in Plymouth, England prior to his migrating to Connecticut (The Ely ancestry... New York : Calumet Press, 1902, pg. 33)