Ellery

The Ellery family from Bodmin to Liverpool

The Ellery Story

William Ellery, the 11th child of Nicholas Ellery and Elizabeth Bray was born in Bodmin, Cornwall in 1837. His father died young and he and his brother Nicholas, the only two children still alive in 1841, lived with their mother, a shoebinder, and her brother, a cordwainer and later a constable, in Fore Street, Bodmin. There is evidence that the family pulled together and that they were able to afford satisfactory education for William and his brother Nicholas. William joined the Royal Cornish Rangers as a boy soldier and was a bugler. I can only imagine that he was a charming young man in good health for he quickly attracted the attention of Mary Jane Bligh, a young lady considerably older than himself and from a wealthier family. William and Mary married and had two children before, sadly, Mary Jane died.

A year after his wife’s death, William applied to the Civil Service and obtained a position in HM Customs in Liverpool. The two boys remained in Cornwall. Within 12 months William was settled with Grace Warburton in Liverpool and they already had a son of their own, John, who was born in 1860. William and Grace had 9 children. Did William escape the responsibilities of fatherhood to the children borne by Mary Jane or did he change his career and move to Liverpool so that he could make a better life for them? The only clue at the moment is that William continued to use family Christian names for the children of his second marriage, it doesn’t quite suggest a fresh start, more a continuity of the family to some extent. Aunt Doris, when asked to identify a portrait that we had uncovered, said with great reverence and respect – ‘that is grandfather Ellery’. He seems to have settled down in Liverpool and got on with his career. With 11 children to provide for he needed to have a good career. I can only say that I never heard a bad word against him, but even that doesn’t really tell us much. I like the sound of him, though, so I’ll err on the best side.

One of the children, Amelia Ellery, married, literally, the boy next door. Amelia was about 22 years old and John Alexander Ralston was about 31 years old. They stayed married until John died in 1929 but the children, if they ever spoke of their father, had nothing good to say about him whereas it was said that there never was a mother so lovely as their own mother. Having said that, John was a hard worker, always provided a nice home for his family and ensured that all the children had good educations and that the boys secured proper trades. Yet, when John died it was said that Amelia suffered the shock of finding that ‘all the property’ had been sold and that she had nothing, it turned her hair white overnight and she lost her sight. The will doesn’t exactly confirm this but evidence to support anything at all is just not forthcoming.

Amelia lived a few more years, looked after by her older children who would sit her in the sunshine so that she could feel the sun even though she could not see anything. My mother remembered her because Amelia always wanted to do the traditional grandma thing of saying ‘stand by me Barbara and let’s see how much you have grown’. She was loved by all. My mother also remembered Amelia’s sister Grace who was a dressmaker and made many of mum’s dresses. Grace married Henry Nuttall, either Henry or their son was ‘on the council’ and was able to help her sister to get a council house and to help my mother’s parents get a new council house after they had been flooded out of their own house during a freezing cold winter and my mother, as a tiny girl, contracted double pneumonia. Kindness seemed to run in that family.

 

My Lineage

  • great great great grandfather     Nicholas Ellery
  • great great grandfather     William Ellery 1837
  • great grandmother     Amelia Ellery 1869
  • grandmother     Gertrude Maud Ralston 1903
  • mother      Barbara Salthouse
  • Self     Hilary Belton

Ellery Family Tree

  • Nicholas Ellery of Redruth and Elizabeth Bray 1795-1879 were married in 1815 at Bodmin. They had 11 children 
    • Henry Ellery of Bodmin  1815-1823
    • Nicholas Ellery of Bodmin 1817-1819
    • Belinda Ellery of Bodmin 1820-1823
    • John Ellery of Bodmin 1823-1823
    • John Henry Ellery of Bodmin 1824
    • Elizabeth Belinda Ellery of Bodmin 1826-1834
    • Amelia Bray Ellery of Bodmin 1827-1833
    • William Henry Ellery of Bodmin 1830-1831
    • Richard Ellery of Bodmin 1832-1833
    • Nicholas Ellery of Bodmin 1835
    • William Ellery of Bodmin 1837-1909 married 1) Mary Jane Bligh 1825-1858 in 1855 at Bodmin, they had 2 children. He married/partnered 2) Grace Warburton 1842-1894 at Liverpool, they had 9 children
      • William Henry Bligh Ellery of Bodmin 1855 married Rebecca Ivey in 1883 at St Austell
        • William Herbert Bligh Ellery of Bodmin 1886
      • Herbert Otho Ellery of Bodmin 1856-1903 married Janet Hayward in 1889 at Camberwell
        • Winifred Bligh Ellery of Camberwell 1893 married Jack S Bridges in 1915 at Wandsworth
          • Sheila E S Bridges 1920 of Brighton
          • Jeremy R Bridges 1938 of Brighton
        • Hilda Ellery of Camberwell 1895 married Frederick G Verinder in 1916 at Wandsworth
          • Gordon A Verinder 1916 of Lambeth
          • Martin H Verinder 1921 of Wandsworth
          • Stephen G Verinder 1923 of Wandsworth
          • David J Verinder 1929 of Romford
      • John Ellery  of Liverpool 1860 married Anne Caddick in 1889 at Liverpool
        • Ruth Ellery of Liverpool 1880 married William W Sanderson in 1922 at Liverpool
        • Annie Ellery of Liverpool 1894
      • Clara Elizabeth Ellery of Liverpool 1864
      • James Nicholas Ellery of Liverpool 1866-1870
      • Amelia Ellery  of Liverpool 1868-19480 married John Alexander Ralston (1859-1929) in 1890 at Liverpool
        • John Alexander Ralston of Liverpool 1891 married Isabella K Rennie in 1916 at Liverpool
          • Alexander Ralston of Liverpool 1919-1992
        • David Ralston of Liverpool 1893-1980 married Edith Marian Swinnerton of London 1889-1890 in 1925 at Liverpool
          • Margaret Ralston
          • David Ralston
        • William Ralston of Liverpool 1895 married Ethel Valentine Hutchings of Liverpool 1891 in 1919 at Liverpool
          • Ethel Doris Ralston of Liverpool 1921
          • Ernest Raymond Ralston of Liverpool 1922
        • Amelia Ralston of Liverpool 1898-1993 married James Johnstone McLusky of Scotland 1901-1968 in 1942 at Prescot
        • Thomas Ralston of Liverpool 1901-1902
        • Gertrude Maud Ralston of Liverpool 1903-1988 married James Thomas Salthouse of Liverpool 1897-1978 in 1922 at Liverpool
          • James Thomas Salthouse of Liverpool 1923-1923
          • Barbara Salthouse of Liverpool 1927-2011 married 1) Edmund William Burton of Bourne 1927-2003 and 2) William Arthur Belton of Bwlchgwyn 1920-1996
            • Hilary Belton
        • Albert Ralston of Liverpool 1908 to 1966
        • Doris May Ralston of Liverpool 1911-2000 married Jack Percival Mann in 1947 at Brentford
      • Harriet Cecila Ellery of Liverpool 1870-1873
      • Alfred Ellery of Liverpool 1873 Married Margaret Simm in 1894 at Liverpool
        • John Alfred Ellery of Liverpool 1897-1916
        • Alfred Ellery of Liverpool 1903
        • Lillian Margaret Ellery of Liverpool 1905
        • Agnes Hilda Ellery of Liverpool 1910
      • George Ellery of Liverpool 1874 married Mary A Thompson in 1896 in Liverpool
        • Arthur Ellery
        • Florence Ellery
      • Grace Ellery of Liverpool 1876-1947 married Henry Nuttall of Liverpool 1872 in 1900 at Liverpool
        • Herbert Henry Nuttall of Liverpool 1902 married Ada Jones in 1933 in Liverpool
        • Frederick Nuttall of Liverpool 1910
      • Nicholas Ellery of Liverpool 1879-1881

Please remember that the information on this website is only accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief. If any of the information is relevant to your own research, please double-check the sources.