Evidently the days spent by my mother in Heligoland were the most brilliant of my mother’s life; she was made a great deal of in society composed at the time of officers and navy men. Civilian refugees of rank from different countries, the whole forming a pleasing and fascinating melange, delighted to enjoy my father’s hospitality which was granted in a princely style.
My mother has often alluded to the merry times spent in Heligoland, of the dinners (which she declares she did not approve of) given by my father, where plenty abounded and the ruby cup went merrily round.
In 1814 my father determined upon quitting Heligoland which no longer offered the same resources. On the 22nd May he and his wife accompanied by Mr and Mrs Hughes, 3 children, Charles, Fanny and Gustavus, left the island and landed on the 23rd at Emden in East Friesland, passed through L(oppersum?) and Groningen, crossed the Zuyder Zee5 and then stopped a week at the Doelen Hotel6, Doelen street at Amsterdam where they were most kindly treated by Mr Melville the English Consul and the …nger family.
They next visited The Hague and Rotterdam and arrived at Antwerp on the 17th June 1814.
It was this place which he had fixed upon as his new residence and place of business. They first took up their quarters at the Hotel D’Angleterre situated in the Rue de L’Empereur, kept by a Madam Loot, the mother of the present Burgomaster of Antwerp where they remained till the 22nd July. They moved on the 23rd of July into a house situated in the Rue de le (sic) Hopital7, then belonging to a Mr van der Heyden and in which I was born on the 7th of August 1814. With his usual activity Mr Ellerman soon managed to give an impulse to his new house of business which he established under the firm of “Abraham Ellerman” and which (while I am now writhing in 1861) has continued to exist with the ups and downs which attend mercantile undertakings for a period of nearly 47 years.
Through his English connections he immediately secured an influx of consignments to his address. At the time of the occupation of the town by the Allied forces in 1815 my father’s house was hospitably opened to friends amongst whom were General Sir Hugh Halkett and Sir Colin Halkett who were in command of the Hanoverian8 troops.
On 19th May 1817 he was appointed Hanoverian Consul. On 18th September 1820 as Consul of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenberg-Schwerin9. On 24th August 1826 he was promoted to the rank of Consul General for Hanover in the Southern Provinces of The Netherlands. In …. he obtained the lucrative appointment of the Agent of the Underwriters at Lloyds10, London and in June 1825 he was appointed acting British Consul after the death of his friend Mr Annesty and gave great satisfaction in the appointment for 9 months when Mr Larpent succeeded to the office. On 26th January 1823 Mr and Mrs Ellerman walked across the river Scheldt upon the ice which was strong and fixed from shore to shore.
My father’s business increased up to 1830. He bought in for the modest sum of 5,000 (currency?) a large sugar refinery which had belonged to the Le Grelle family and which after repairs he converted into spacious warehouses for receiving the numerous cargoes of sugar, coffee and hide he received in consignment. The building I allude to bears the signs of the “Bell and the Gun” situate Plaine de Hesse with a dwelling house adjoining. The proximity of these stores to the docks and the Railway Station has since the purchase more than doubled the value whilst yielding yearly a very handsome interest. The investment has proved a very excellent one to the Ellerman family:  ¶ 12:39 pm