30 December, 2005
I will be publishing, page by page, a history of Sir Abraham Ellerman who was British Consul General in Hanover and who negotiated the peace between the Dutch and the Belgians in 1831.
Written by William Alexander Ellerman, son of Abraham Daniel Frederick Ellerman, 1861
Abraham Daniel Frederick Ellerman, legitimate son of Abraham Ellerman and Fanny Egan, was born at Altona on the 10th November 1775 and sent by this father to a school near Hull where he acquired that fluency and facility in the use of the English language which made it familiar to him as his Mother’s tongue. As his mother, who was Irish or of Irish origin, died when he was only six years old, he could not have derived much instruction in English from her. On his return form school he seems to have been received as a volunteer in the House of Parish and Co. of Hamburg, which must then have been in the Zenith of its commercial greatness and in which he had thus an opportunity to see and learn a good deal, familiarising himself with large commercial transactions and becoming acquainted with persons of note and rank who were in connexion with or brought introductory letters from other houses. I always understood that owing to his easy bearing and gentlemanly manner, my father was usually singled out by old Mr Parish to look after and be with such visitors.
How long my father (the object of this note) remained in the house of Parish and Co. at Hamburg, I am unable to say, but it is certain that he secured the friendship and esteem of all its members and the especial regard of the family which generation after generation remained secured to him until death.
Later on my Father established himself as a merchant at Tönningen, with a capital of £3,000 advanced to him by his father, but there he seems to have been unfortunate which induced him during the war and continental blockade by the first Napoleon to settle in the Island of Heligoland, situated in the North Sea towards the year …., where he seems to have had a large and prosperous business, principally through his friends in business in England, who made use of Heligoland3 as safe medium of traffic with the neighbouring Continent, the island being then, as it is now, a dependency of the British Crown. My mother thinks that he must have been worth £40,000 sterling. He lived there in great style and kept open house, priding himself upon not allowing any person of distinction or note to visit the island without having tasted of his hospitality. I believe that to this day the name of Ellerman is remembered and respected in the island and given to one of the streets in the town. Persons of the highest rank have thus been his guests. Amongst others the late Gustavus Adolphus1 Wasa (sic), King of Sweeden (sic), who was a kind of prisoner on parole in the Island and a constant visitor at my Father’s house which my mother describes as having been a perfect bijou of comfort and elegance.
The King gave my Father several interesting souvenirs, such as some books in which his name is inscribed. A plain mahogany Liqueur Case with silver …….tablet and ring bearing the initials and Royal Crown containing two good sized bottles (cut glass) with silver stoppers and when opened, exhibiting on the under the works in gold letters “Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweeden (sic) to Abraham D. F. Ellerman Heligoland”. Besides this my Father received from the King a ring showing a good-sized diamond set in the old fashioned way in blue enamel which he declared had come to him from the famous Charles 12th of Sweeden2 (sic). My father left this ring by will to my brother Gustavus who during his lifetime got the diamond taken out and placed in a modern ring of Australian gold, which in its present shape was left by Gustavus at his death to me and now adorns the finger of my wife Louisa. ¶ 10:50 am
Written by William Alexander Ellerman, son of Abraham Daniel Frederick Ellerman, 1861
Abraham Daniel Frederick Ellerman, legitimate son of Abraham Ellerman and Fanny Egan, was born at Altona on the 10th November 1775 and sent by this father to a school near Hull where he acquired that fluency and facility in the use of the English language which made it familiar to him as his Mother’s tongue. As his mother, who was Irish or of Irish origin, died when he was only six years old, he could not have derived much instruction in English from her. On his return form school he seems to have been received as a volunteer in the House of Parish and Co. of Hamburg, which must then have been in the Zenith of its commercial greatness and in which he had thus an opportunity to see and learn a good deal, familiarising himself with large commercial transactions and becoming acquainted with persons of note and rank who were in connexion with or brought introductory letters from other houses. I always understood that owing to his easy bearing and gentlemanly manner, my father was usually singled out by old Mr Parish to look after and be with such visitors.
How long my father (the object of this note) remained in the house of Parish and Co. at Hamburg, I am unable to say, but it is certain that he secured the friendship and esteem of all its members and the especial regard of the family which generation after generation remained secured to him until death.
Later on my Father established himself as a merchant at Tönningen, with a capital of £3,000 advanced to him by his father, but there he seems to have been unfortunate which induced him during the war and continental blockade by the first Napoleon to settle in the Island of Heligoland, situated in the North Sea towards the year …., where he seems to have had a large and prosperous business, principally through his friends in business in England, who made use of Heligoland3 as safe medium of traffic with the neighbouring Continent, the island being then, as it is now, a dependency of the British Crown. My mother thinks that he must have been worth £40,000 sterling. He lived there in great style and kept open house, priding himself upon not allowing any person of distinction or note to visit the island without having tasted of his hospitality. I believe that to this day the name of Ellerman is remembered and respected in the island and given to one of the streets in the town. Persons of the highest rank have thus been his guests. Amongst others the late Gustavus Adolphus1 Wasa (sic), King of Sweeden (sic), who was a kind of prisoner on parole in the Island and a constant visitor at my Father’s house which my mother describes as having been a perfect bijou of comfort and elegance.
The King gave my Father several interesting souvenirs, such as some books in which his name is inscribed. A plain mahogany Liqueur Case with silver …….tablet and ring bearing the initials and Royal Crown containing two good sized bottles (cut glass) with silver stoppers and when opened, exhibiting on the under the works in gold letters “Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweeden (sic) to Abraham D. F. Ellerman Heligoland”. Besides this my Father received from the King a ring showing a good-sized diamond set in the old fashioned way in blue enamel which he declared had come to him from the famous Charles 12th of Sweeden2 (sic). My father left this ring by will to my brother Gustavus who during his lifetime got the diamond taken out and placed in a modern ring of Australian gold, which in its present shape was left by Gustavus at his death to me and now adorns the finger of my wife Louisa. ¶ 10:50 am
