The public services of my father as well as his amiable qualities called for a demonstration of esteem and respect which must have been highly flattering to his feelings. The leading people of the Island headed by the Governor, Sir William Hamilton, presented my father with a service of silver plate valued at 500 guineas. Upon the centre piece or epergne is inscribed the following:

“At a meeting of several merchants the following resolutions were passed – Resolved that the conduct of Mr. A. Ellerman deserves the approbation and thanks of every individual interested in or connected with the Trade of this Island. Resolved that the high esteem and attachment which is so universally felt for him here, his unwearied and unceasing exertions for advancing the interests and extending the Commerce of this settlement. The upright and manly conduct is frequently testified in the discharge of our arduous public situation during a period of great difficulty necessarily requiring from him the sacrifice of much valued time. The urbanity of his manners to all who have had an occasion to address him as Representative of the Mercantile Body or who have mingled with him in private life demand some signal and lasting mark of approbation. Resolved that a Service of Plate value 500 guineas be presented to him and that Messers Hercules Sharp, G.P.Becker and John ‘I Surteau be nominated a committee for carrying this purpose into effect. Heligoland 22^nd August 1810”.

After a period of great prosperity reverses came and my father lost at one time nearly all the whole of his property through the decree of Napoleon’s ordering all English Manufacture and goods to be burnt. Unfortunately at that time my father held a large quantity of such goods at Hamburg and was thus deeply involved in the losses which resulted from the iniquitous act of spoliation.

In the Island of Heligoland commenced that friendship with Lord George Stuart son of the Marquis of Bute⁴, which lasted for life.

I cannot say whether it was before or after his settlement in Heligoland that my father was so frequently in Scotland. At all events it was during his bachelor days since at the time he was about to be married to a Miss Hamilton, an engagement broken off for reasons I cannot tell. In Scotland, a country (as well as its inhabitants he was very fond of), he had many friends especially in Greenock and Glasgow many of them business friends who remained true to him when circumstances forced him to quit Heligoland.

In 1807 my grandfather on my mother’s side, Captain William Lang Hughes, was sent in command of some English troops to Heligoland. He embarked from England on board a Transport ship called the Endeavour, which was neither staunch nor strong and arrived at Heligoland in so disabled a condition that after disembarking the troops she was declared unseaworthy. My father was standing on the pier at Heligoland when Captain Hughes, his wife and daughter Eliza (our mother) landed in the island. Next to my father stood a Captain D’huberque or the family of the Duc do Bouillou who said “Ellerman that will be your wife” and so it proved. It was at Heligoland 13^th October 1808 that my father was married by Pasteur (sic) Inghusen to Eliza Georgiana Lang Hughes born at Dublin 10^th March 1790, in the presence of Sir William Hamilton Governor of the Island (who I believe was related to my mother’s mother), Mr Nicholas the consul and Baron de Theusingen. My father had a very pleasing appearance, chestnut coloured hair, good features, an open and manly appearance, bluish grey eyes with great vivacity of manner and buoyancy of spirits. Nothing seems ever to have daunted him or discouraged him uniting a proper religious feeling to great confidence in himself and his resources. His motto was “Faire sans Dire” “Deeds not words”. He was of middle size and well made; the only fault to find in him was that his feet and hands were a little too long, though well shaped. In habits he was most active, in bearing gentlemanly and agreeable and he possessed a very winning and engaging way. He attended always particularly to his person, was always moulded on the best of models. My mother must have been remarkably handsome and attractive at the time of her marriage, a fair brunette with luxuriant and beautiful brown hair which, when allowed to escape, fell round her in such profusion that her person was concealed as with a veil and descended to her knees. She is rather under the middle size but had a good figure and bust and rather a coquettish manner; she must have been a great favourite with the gentlemen. We possess of my father a small miniature taken when he was 18, a portrait some years after painted by a German artist at Heligoland who represented him with two children, Charles and Fanny, on his knees. We have also an excellent bust in plaster made immediately after his death in 1831 by the sculptor Geefs. It is a valuable cast from nature representing him in his consular dress.

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