Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hargrove, Ely
HARGROVE, ELY (1741–1818), historian of Knaresborough, born at Halifax, Yorkshire, on 19 March (O.S.) 1741, was the son of James Hargrove of Halifax, by his wife Mary, daughter of George Gudgeon of Skipton-in-Craven in the same county. In February 1762 he settled at Knaresborough, Yorkshire, as a bookseller and publisher. A few years later he was able to open a branch business at Harrogate. In 1769, according to Boyne (Yorkshire Library, p. 141), appeared anonymously the first edition of Hargrove's 'History of the Castle, Town, and Forest of Knaresborough, with Harrogate and its Medicinal Waters,' &c., which was frequently republished, latterly with the compiler's name on the title-page. The York edition of 1789 contains plates and woodcuts by Thomas Bewick. To the sixth edition, 12mo, Knaresborough, 1809, is appended an 'Ode on Time,' reprinted in William Hargrove's ' York Poetical Miscellany,' 1835 (pp. 60-1). Hargrove also compiled: 1. 'Anecdotes of Archery from the earliest ages to the year 1791 . . . with some curious particulars in the Life of Robert Fitz-Ooth, Earl of Huntingdon, vulgarly called Robin Hood,' &c., 12mo, York, 1792 (another edition, 'revised, brought down to the present time, and interspersed with much new . . . matter, includ- ing an account of the principal existing societies of archers, a life of Robin Hood, and a glossary of terms used in archery, by Alfred E. Hargrove,' 8vo, York, 1845). 2. 'The Yorkshire Gazetteer, or a Dictionary of the Towns, Villages, and Hamlets, Monasteries and Castles, principal Mountains, Rivers, &c., in the county of York and Ainsty,' &c., 12mo, Knaresborough, 1806; second edition, 1812. Under the signature of 'E. H. K.' he contributed papers to the 'Gentleman's Magazine' on Yorkshire topography and antiquities (cf. Gent. Mag. for May 1789), and furnished an account of Boroughbridge to the fifth volume of Rees's 'New Cyclopædia.' His manuscript collections on Yorkshire history filled sixteen folio and quarto volumes. Hargrove died at Knaresborough on 5 Dec. 1818, and was buried in the churchyard there. He married, first, Christiana (d. 1780), daughter of Thomas Clapham of Firby, near Bedale, Yorkshire, by whom he had issue twelve children; and secondly, Mary, daughter of John Bower of Grenoside Hall, near Sheffield; she died at York in April 1825, and was buried at Knaresborough, leaving a son, William Hargrove [q. v.]
[Information from W. W. Hargrove, esq.; Gent. Mag. 1818, pt. ii. p. 645; David Rivers's Literary Memoirs of Living Authors.]