Henry Edward Pellew was born on April 26, 1828 in Canterbury, City of Canterbury, Kent, England. He was the son of George Pellew, canon in Canterbury Cathedral and later dean of Norwich, and of Frances (Addington) Pellew, the daughter of Henry Addington, first Viscount Sidmouth.
Henry Edward Pellew was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his B. A. degree in 1850. At Cambridge he was stroke and captain of his college crew and in his last year was stroke and captain of the varsity crew.
In 1854 Henry Edward Pellew was commissioned by Baring's, the London bankers, to visit their agencies in the Americas preparatory to accepting a position in New York. Although the post never materialized, he spent two years in travel over a large part of the United States as well as Central and South America. In 1858 he returned to the United States. Returning to England he took up his residence in London, where he was magistrate (J. P. ), member of the school board, on the governing boards of such institutions as Hanwell lunatic asylum, Bridewell, Westminster, and other hospitals, and of the Feltenham industrial school. He became secretary of the Keble memorial fund and was instrumental in raising a large amount for the establishment of Keble College, Oxford.
After second marriage Henry Edward Pellew acquired a country place at Bedford, New York, which had been part of the Jay estate. Shortly after his arrival he took an active part in coordinating the work of the various charitable organizations then operating in New York City and helped organize the Charity Organization Society, serving on the original central council from 1882 to 1885, on various committees, and as vice-president from 1887 to 1890. He was on the board of managers of the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor from 1875 to 1887 and was president, 1884 - 1885. He was a commissioner of education in New York, 1880 - 1881, and was helpful in the tenement house reform movement as well as in the establishment of free civic libraries and night refuges. During this period he was also active in Bedford, where his summer home was.
Henry Edward Pellew was a member of the vestry of St. Matthew's Church, 1876 - 1877 and 1885 - 1892, and at one time taught a class of boys in the Sunday school. He joined the Bedford farmers' club, an old established institution, in which he took an active interest and of which he was president from 1878 to 1890. Since the climate of New York did not agree with his health, he moved to Washington in 1885, where he made his home until his death. Selling his country place at Bedford in 1892, he later bought a house at Sharon, Connecticut, and thereafter spent his summers there. In Washington he served as vestryman of St. John's Church from 1891 to 1908 and as a delegate to the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in 1891 and 1900. He was one of the incorporators of the national cathedral foundation in 1893 and a delegate to the convention of the diocese of Washington in 1895.
Henry Edward Pellew was helpful in establishing King Hall, a theological school for negroes, serving on the board of trustees from 1891 to 1903, was a member and for several years secretary of the commission for work among the colored people, and also a member of St. Monica's league for work among the colored people. The year before his death he fell heir to the title of Viscount Exmouth, but because of his advanced age he made no attempt officially to assume the title, and he died as he had lived for over fifty years, a citizen of his adopted country on February 4, 1923.
On October 5, 1858 Henry Edward Pellew was married at Bedford, New York, to Eliza, a daughter of William Jay. On December 22, 1869, his wife died and four years later on May 14, 1873, he was married to Augusta Jay, her sister, at the American legation in Vienna, Austria, where her brother John Jay, 1817 - 1894, was at the time United States minister. The issue of this marriage was one daughter. Since the marriage of a deceased wife's sister was at that time against English law, subsequent to his second marriage he removed with his family to the United States and settled in New York.
