1816 he proceeded to the degree of M.A., and was ordained for the curacy of Cricklade, a Wiltshire parish in the diocese of Gloucester. In the following year, having received priest's orders, he removed to Bitton, Gloucestershire, in the same diocese. He held the curacy till 1835, when he became the vicar. In 1850 he was presented to the rectory of Clyst St. George, Devonshire, being succeeded in his former benefice by his son, the Rev. Canon Ellacombe. He died at Clyst St. George, 30 July 1885, and was buried in the churchyard of Bitton.
In spite of many difficulties, Ellacombe restored the church of Bitton in 1822, and built three other churches in the wide district under his care. In 1843 his parishioners presented him with a testimonial, and in doing so the churchwardens stated that he had been the means of providing church accommodation in the district for 2,285 worshippers, and schoolrooms for 820 children. After his removal to Clyst St. George he rebuilt the nave of the church, and in 1860 erected a school-house and master's residence.
Ellacombe was the great authority on bells, upon which he wrote some valuable treatises. He likewise invented an ingenious apparatus of chiming hammers, which enables one man to chime all the bells in a steeple. He was a learned antiquary, and a skiliul florist and botanist. His chief writings are: 1. 'Practical Remarks on Belfries and Ringers,' Bristol, 1850, 4th edit. 1876. 2. 'The Bells of the Church,' London, 1862. 3. 'History and Antiquities of the Parish of Clyst St. George,' Exeter, 1865. 4. 'Memoir of the Manor of Bitton,' 1867. 5. 'Church Bells of Devon, with a List of those in Cornwall and a Supplement,' Exeter, 1872. 6. 'Church Bells of Somerset,' &c., Exeter. 1875. 7. 'The Voice of the Church Bells,' Exeter, 1875. 8. 'Church Bells of Gloucestershire,' &c, Exeter, 1881. 9. 'History and Antiquities of the Parish of Bitton,' 2 parts, Exeter, 1881-3. These works were privately printed.
[Catalogue of Oxford Graduates (under the name 'Ellicombe'); Church Bells, 7 Aug. 1885; Gloucestershire Notes and Queries, iii. 230; Morley's Reminiscences, i. 75-81.]
ELLENBOROUGH, Lord and Earl of. [See Law, Edward.]
ELLERKER, Sir RALPH (d. 1546), warrior, was the eldest son of Sir Ralph Ellerker of Risby, Yorkshire, by Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Gower of Stytnam. Both father and son were knighted by the Earl of Surrey at Flodden Field. The elder Ellerker took part in the useless Spanish expedition in 1512, was an esquire of the king's body, received a salary as one of the king's spears of honour, and died in 1540. Whether it was he or his son who represented Scarborough in the parliament of 1529 is uncertain. The younger Ellerker was appointed chief steward of the lordships of Cotingham
and Rise in 1522, and from that time onward frequently was on the commission of the peace for the East Riding. He was on the royal
commission to treat for redress of outrages in the west marches in 1531, when he also served on a commission for the reform of the
weirs and fishgarths in Yorkshire. In 1533 he was busy in the north mustering troops and fighting, and in July of that year he was one of the English commissioners who concluded a year's truce with Scotland. He was returned by York county for the parliament of 1541. In 1542 he was head of a commission appointed to survey the waste grounds on the border, to describe the condition of 'all castells, towers, barmekins, and fortresses,' and to advise on the best means for strengthening the defences and peopling the district. The official report of this commission is preserved among the Harleian MSS. (292, ff. 97-123). In the same year Ellerker was one of the council at Calais, and in 1544 he was marshal of the English army in Boulogne when that town was captured. He distinguished himself by taking the crest from the dauphin of France. He returned to England in January 1545-6, but in April was at Boulogne again, and died there in battle in that month. He was buried in the church of St. Mary at Boulogne. He married Joan, daughter of John or Thomas Arden, by whom he had a son, Ralph, who was high-sheriff in 1529, was knighted by Henry VlII
on presenting the ensign won in France, and died 1 Aug. 1550.
[Poulson's Hist. of Holderness, i. 394; Thomas's Historical Notes, i. 117; Brewer's Letters and Papers of Henry VIII (Rolls Ser.) i. 967, ii. 872, 1464, iii. 864, 3076, v. 147, 335, 347, 497.]
ELLERKER, THOMAS (1738–1795), Jesuit, born at Hart, near Hartlepool, Durham, on 21 Sept. 1738, entered the Society of Jesus in 1755, and in due course became a professed father. When the order was suppressed in 1773 he accompanied his fellow Jesuits to Liège, and thence emigrated with the community in 1794 to Stonyhurst, Lancashire, where he died on 1 May 1795.
Ellerker, who is described by Dr. Oliver as 'one of the ablest professors of theology that the English province ever produced,' was the author of: 1. 'Tractatus Theologicus de Jure et Justitiâ,' 1767, 4to, pp. 248. In the
