Ebenezer Elliott

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Ebenezer Elliott (17 March 1781 – 1 December 1849) was an English poet best known as the Corn Law rhymer for his role in the fight to abolish the Corn Laws, which were causing poverty and starvation among the poor.

Though a factory owner himself, his single-minded concern for the wellbeing of the working classes earned him a long-serving reputation long after his poetry was not published.

Early life

Elliott was born at the New Foundry, Masbrough, Yorkshire parish of Rotherham, Yorkshire. His father, who was also known as "Devil Elliott" for his fiery sermons, was a ferocious Calvinist and a hard Radical. He was involved in the iron trade. Poor health and young Ebenezer both stricken his mother, but one of eleven children, of whom eight survived, had a solitary and morbid childhood. He had smallpox at the age of six, leaving him "fearfully disfigured and six weeks blind." His wellbeing was unaffected long before, and in later life he suffered from sickness and depression.

He was first educated at a dame school and then at the Hollis School in Rotherham, where he was "taught to write and little more," but was still regarded as a dunce. He disliked school and preferred to be truant, so he spent his time exploring Rotherham's countryside, observing the plants and local wildlife. At the age of 14, he began to read extensively on his own account, collected plants and flowers, and was delighted to see "a stunning green snake" appear in his leisure hours, which delighted me at the top of Primrose Lane on the fine Sabbath mornings about ten o'clock. When he was 16 years old, he was sent to work at his father's foundry, but his pay was only worth a little bit in lieu of wages for the next seven years.

Early works

He says he was entirely self-taught and owes his poetic growth to long country walks in search of wild flowers, as well as a series of books containing the work of Young, Barrow, Shenstone, and John Milton, who bequeathed to his father. In "The Life, Poetry, and Letters of Ebenezer Elliott," which was released in 1850, his son-in-law, John Watkins, gave a more detailed account. Elliott skipped chapel and visited Aunt Robinson, where he was enthralled by some color plates of flowers from Sowerby's English Botany. He was delighted to discover he had a natural talent for flower drawings when his uncle urged him to make his own flower drawings. Giles, Elliott's younger brother who had always admired his food, read a poem from James Thomson's "The Seasons" which described polyanthus and auricular flowers, and it was a turning point in Elliott's life. He discovered that combining his love of nature and his drawing skills could be achieved by writing poems and presenting them with flower illustrations.

He wrote his first poem, "Vernal Walk," in honor of James Thompson, who died in 1798. George Crabbe, Lord Byron, Romantic poets, and Robert Southey, who later became Poet Laureate, were all influential. Elliott wrote to Southey in 1808, asking for information about getting published. Southey's warm response began a correspondence over the years that affirmed his desire to make a name for himself as a writer. They met once, but they exchanged letters until 1824, and Elliott said it was Southey who had taught him the art of poetry.

Other early poems include Second Nuptials and Night, or the Legend of Wharncliffe, which was described by the Monthly Review as the "Ne plus ultra of German horror and bombast." His Tales of the Night, which included The Exile and Bothwell, were considered to have more merit and deserved him praise. In a long and friendly letter (30 January 1819) from Southey to the author, his earlier volumes of poems dealing with romantic themes were much criticized, and the flaws of Night, the earliest of these, were pointed out.

Elliott married Frances (Fanny) Gartside in 1806 and they had 13 children. He invested his wife's wealth in his father's share of the iron foundry, but the family business's finances were already in a difficult situation and money issues have caused his father's death. In 1816, Elliott lost all and went bankrupt. He obtained funds from his wife's sisters in 1819 and began a new venture as an iron dealer in Sheffield. This flourished, and by 1829, he had established himself as a reputable iron merchant and steel manufacturer.

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