Born in Le Havre, Ancelot became a clerk in the admiralty, and retained his position until the Revolution of 1830. In 1816 his play "Warwick" was accepted by the Théâtre Français, but never produced, and three years later a five-act tragedy, "Louis IX", was staged. Three editions of the play were speedily exhausted; it had a run of fifty representations, and brought him a pension of 2000 francs from Louis XVIII. His next work, "Le Maire du palais", was played in 1825 with less success; but for it he received the cross of the Légion d'honneur. In 1824 he produced "Fiesque", a clever adaptation of Schiller's "Fiesco". In 1828 appeared "Olga, ou l'orpheline russe", the plot of which had been inspired by a voyage he made to Russia in 1826. About the same period he produced in succession "Marie de Brabant" (1825), a poem in six cantos; "L'Homme du monde" (1827), a novel in four volumes, afterwards dramatized with success; and in 1829 a play, "Elisabeth d'Angleterre".