142
NOTES AND QUERIES, m s. xn. AUG. 21, iwe.
rendered difficult by the Napoleonic blockade.
Persuaded and supported by an influential
circle of friends (included amongst whom was
Gustavus Adolphus Vasa IV., King of
Sweden), he established himself as a mer-
chant on that island, and very shortly
developed a large and prosperous business,
principally with Hull and Hamburg. It
was at Heligoland in 1808 that he met and
married his w^ife, the daughter of Capt.
William Lang Hughes, who had been in 1807
sent to Heligoland in command of the
British garrison on the capture of the island
by the British, and whose wife was Martha
Westropp, a daughter of Randall Westropp,
an alderman of the city of Cork.
At the conclusion of peace in 1814, Abraham Frederick Daniel Ellerman trans- ferred his residence and place- of business to Antwerp, and in May, 1817, was appointed Hanoverian Consul at that port (becoming Consul-General 24 Aug., 1826), and in September, 1820, Consul for the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburgh Schwerin. Subse- quently, on the death of the Hon. Robert Annesley, he acted for six months in 1825 as British Consul in Antwerp. He had also been Lloyd's Agent in Antwerp almost since the date of his settlement there, and in February, 1831, he visited London on the invitation of King William IV. (who was also King of Hanover), and was personally invested by the King with the insignia and dignity of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order. He died at Antwerp 7 Nov., 1831, and on his death his son, Charles Frederick Ellerman, who had been educated in Belgium, succeeded to the various positions held by him.
Charles "Frederick Ellerman thus became head of the mercantile house of A. Ellerman et Cie. of Antwerp and Rotterdam, in which he had been working under his father since the age of 1 5 ; and also Hanoverian Consul and Consul for the Grand Duchy of Mecklen- burgh Schwerin, acquiring, "besides, the lucrative office of Lloyd's Age.nt at Antwerp. He succeeded for some few years in giving satisfaction and conciliating the goodwill of his father's friends and business connexions, but after a time his musical talents, which were of a high order, and his taste for singing and the operatic stage, led him into the intimacy of actors and actresses, which caused him to neglect his affairs and to dissipate his resources on objects outside his business and family connexions, with the result that in December, 1837, he was obliged to surrender the active management of the Antwerp mercantile house, though
continuing for a short period longer to
occupy himself with his Consulships and
Lloyd s Agency. In May, 1838, he left
Antwerp and went to Paris, where he appears
to have become (to use his own language) a
devotee of " La Penna " ; in August, 1838,
he migrated to New Orleans in the United
States, whence, after a short stay, he passed
on to the Havanas. In July, 1840, he
returned to Europe, settling in London, and,
entering into partnership with Mr. Labatt,
reverted once again to commercial pursuits.
These, however, soon proved unsuccessful
owing to the bankruptcy of Mr. Labatt in
August, 1842, which eventually involved
his own destruction.
Charles Frederick Ellerman had inherited a considerable share of the easy bearing, gentlemanly manners, and fascinating con- versational powers which had so pre- eminently distinguished his father, and at this distressing juncture he appears to have become acquainted with the politician, orator, and writer Viscount Morpeth (who in October, 1848, succeeded as seventh Earl of Carlisle), by whom he was introduced to Charles Dickens, Alfred Crowquill, William Wilson, and other literary men of the period, as well as to men such as the Rev. Charles Girldlestone, Robert Knox, M.D., W. Vesalius Pettigrew, M.D., Lord Murray, the Scotch judge, and others, and for a time was fairly successful in his literary productions and ventures in authorship. The first work published by him was an historical novel of the sixteenth century, entitled ' The Am- nesty, or the Duke of Alba in Flanders,' which appeared in 1843, and was followed by two works, in 1847 and 1848 respectively, upon the health of towns, and the manu- facture of inodorous azotized manure from animal and vegetable matter, and upon sanitary reform and agricultural improve- ment, and also by a volume of ' Reminis- cences of Cuba.' In 1850 he wrote a tragedy in three acts in verse, to which he gave the name of ' Alphonso Barbo, or the Punishment of Death,' and in 1854 he published ' Anglo- Belgic Ballads or Legends and Other Tales in Verse ' a publication which I understand is being in part reproduced.
In December, 1842, he had married an Irish lady, Rosanna Patrick, daughter of Samuel Patrick, an Irish merchant who had settled in London, by whom he had a large family. In July, 1844, through the influence of friends whom he had made in London, he became Secretary of the West Australia Co., an undertaking established to facilitate colonial emigration, in succession to Mr. Gill,
