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 EBENEZER ELLIOTT
(1781 - 1849)


A Needy Old Age For Ebenezer

This article looks at Ebenezer's financial position especially later in his life - based on a record of his assets which he made in 1842.

Elliott was careful with money all his life. We first see evidence of this when as a youngster he worked behind the counter in his father's ironmongers shop on Rotherham High Street, where he would have learned the virtue of watching every penny at an early age. He was also working in his father's iron foundry; here, amazingly, the future bard worked for many years without wages: not until he was 25 years of age did Elliott draw a wage packet. Thus he was accustomed to having little ready cash in his pocket. With marriage & a rapidly growing family, money was inevitably in short supply. Worse was to follow: he took over the struggling foundry from his father, but was unable to save the business. In 1816, Elliott was declared bankrupt. For a few years he was desperately poor & was even reduced to begging in the streets of his home town.

Elliott's fortune changed soon after he moved to Sheffield in 1819 where he set up in business again. His frugal approach was noted by his fellow traders. When trade flourished, Elliott gained a reputation as a canny businessman who was able to stay out of trouble even when prices plummeted. His Rotherham bankruptcy had clearly taught him to be cautious & to avoid taking risks.

In the late 1820s & early 1830s, Elliott became relatively well-to-do, living in a smart villa in the village of Upperthorpe (now a Sheffield suburb), yet his wealth was not sufficient to keep him comfortable through his later years, as will be seen later. The Upperthorpe house was only rented which meant that when the Corn Law Rhymer started to think about finishing work, his retirement home would have to be purchased out of capital, since he had no home to sell. At this point in time, the poet's business was badly affected by the 1837 slump in trade. Poor Ebenezer lost £3,000 and rued not having got out of the business earlier.

In studying Elliott's business difficulties in the 1830s, it is worth pointing out that no record appears to exist of the income gained from the publication of the "Corn Law Rhymes." The book was very popular, went through several editions & prompted demand for collections of his poetical works. Nor have we any idea of the number of copies printed of the "Corn Law Rhymes."  Print runs were likely to be generous owing to Elliott's popularity in the 1830s; this would generate considerable income for the "Laureate of Free Trade." To this should be added fees for articles published in journals such as Tait's Edinburgh Review, and even in the 1840s, two editions of the "Poetical Works" appeared in the United States during Elliott's lifetime - presumably giving his income a welcome boost.

Elliott's retirement home on Hargate Hill was purchased in 1837/1838 from a John Gillott who had gone bankrupt. The poet paid £240 for the premises & spent a further £1,000 modernising and extending the property. He finally moved there in Jan 1841. The purchase of the house, which was freehold, left Elliott wondering how he would manage over the years, as he only had around £4,750 left in the bank. It is surprising then that he rejected the offer from the government of a pension.

Leaving the city to live in a rural area, Elliott reasoned, would help him live within his reduced means. His new life would see him "comparatively poor, but self-sustaining." Yet, there was ever the lurking shadow of the Poor Law to worry over: "I have invested badly, and am likely to become a poor man; but not, I hope, to die in a workhouse bed," the poet wrote to Jon Watkins in 1843.

At his home near Great Houghton, the needy Elliott still managed to employ a maid & a lad, so we should not suppose that the Poet of the Poor was actually destitute, but he did need to keep a close eye on the pennies - always mindful of the years of poverty when he went bankrupt. The Great Houghton home, he calculated, would be worth an income of £17.50 per year if it was rented out.

In his retirement, "the Bard of Trade" made no secret that he barely had £200 per annum in income; this £200 would supplement the four to five thousand pounds in his bank account. In August 1842, the bard broke down his income as follows:-

Sheffield & Rotherham Railway. Ten old shares & forty new. Dividends of £20 10s pa £20.50
Sheffield & Manchester Railway. Six shares £  4
Yorkshire District Bank.Thirty shares £108
Warehouse & furnace rented out £40
Land rented out at Loxley £16
Properties & businesses rented out in Sheffield £10

TOTAL INCOME  = 
£198.50 pa 

Between 1845 and 1848, Elliott frequently gave instructions to his banks to sell the railway shares listed above - presumably he needed some money freeing up. Note that he did not sell them all, since as late as 1849, he instructed his daughter, Noah, to pay in a "railway check"  at the Sheffield Banking Company in George Street, Sheffield.

  • When Elliott left Sheffield in 1841, he maintained his bank accounts there despite the inconvenience. It is fairly obvious that the poet had a good relationship with his Sheffield bankers and he would value this. In addition, he still spent much time in Sheffield in the first few years of his life on Houghton Common, so the Sheffield banks were not as inconvenient as his new address would suggest. Further as we have just seen, when he was unable to travel, he could call on his family to carry out banking transactions for him. His banks in Sheffield were the Sheffield Banking Co, the Sheffield Union Bank & the Yorkshire District Bank. (Elliott closed down an account with Parker & Shore in 1832 - the bank collapsed in 1843).

  • On the Yorkshire District Bank shares, the Rhymer commented that between 1840 and 1842 the bank had lost one third of its value which vastly reduced the bard's income. Subsequently, the unimpressed Elliott often wailed to his friends about his distrust of "joint stock banks."

  • The £40 per annum that Elliott listed for renting out the warehouse & furnace came from his second son. Benjamin Gartside Elliott took over his father's works on Gibraltar Street near Sheffield town centre in 1840 when his father finished work. As well as  handing over the leasehold premises to Benjamin, the bard also gave him £350 worth of stock free of charge.

  • The land rented out at Loxley had been bought in June 1838 & had originally been earmarked for a retirement home for the Poet of the Poor. The land at Loxley (then a pretty valley outside Sheffield) had cost Elliott £50 from a man called William Spooner. From 1839 the land was rented out at £16 a year to Thomas Wilder.

  • The properties & businesses rented out in Sheffield for £10 a year were situated in Snow Lane. They were a blacksmiths shop, a warehouse and five freehold cottages. Elliott stated that two of the cottages had been without tenants for three years; likewise the warehouse. Nor had the man in the blacksmiths shop paid any rent for eighteen months. A sorry state of affairs! And surprising for an Elliott who was short of cash. It is simple to draw the conclusion: Elliott was far too busy with his business troubles, with his retirement home & with his political & poetical interests to commit valuable time to acting the rent collector.

When Elliott left Sheffield in 1841, he maintained his bank accounts there despite the inconvenience. It is fairly obvious that the poet had a good relationship with his Sheffield bankers and he would value this. In addition, he still spent much time in Sheffield in the first few years of his life on Houghton Common, so the Sheffield banks were not as inconvenient as his new address would suggest. Further as we have just seen, when he was unable to travel, he could call on his family to carry out banking transactions for him. His banks in Sheffield were the Sheffield Banking Co, the Sheffield Union Bank & the Yorkshire District Bank. (Elliott closed down an account with Parker & Shore in 1832 - the bank collapsed in 1843).

Fairly soon after Elliott moved to his Hargate Hill home, he began to change his mind about his rural retreat calling it "my miserable hut, or den in the wilderness." Some close friends made the effort to visit the poet in this remote spot, but visitors became rarer & rarer. He found the isolation difficult as he had always liked company & thrived on discussion & argument: "and yet I believe few men are more social than I am," he once said. The lack of stimulation was not good for his morale. He fretted for good company, yet it was the need to live a frugal life which had driven him in to the country. The other reason - one which was extremely important - was his deteriorating health. When we add together Elliott's isolation "in this wilderness" & his continuous poor health, we can easily understand  the poet suffering from depression. Money worries, too, played a part in this downward cycle. It is ironic that the Poet of the Poor, who did so much to fight for the poor, and who believed that "poverty is a crime in this country," should end his days in penury. Not surprising, then, that in one of his last letters the Rhymer observed: "we see so few humans here, that the devil would be welcome if he came, as I hope he will some day soon." 



 

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