Appendix E: Biographies

Ellerby1

Thomas Scales Ellerby (Manchester, Lancashire 18 March 1810 – Toronto, ON 11 June 1892; see Image 256)2 was the son of Martha (Scales) and William Ellerby. His father, a bookseller, was the agent to a religious tract society at No. 15 Picadilly, Manchester.3

Thomas Scales Ellerby, having “from infancy … enjoyed the inestimable privileges arising from the instructions and examples of parental piety, and at an early age [been] deeply impressed with sentiments of religion,”4 left his parents’ home in Manchester when he was fourteen. While away from home, he lost his piety and religion. “This was [his] character during a residence of nearly seven years in Leeds, and whilst attending the ministry of the Revd R.W. Hamilton – and also that of [his] relative the Rev. Thomas Scales.”5 On returning to his parents in Manchester, he eventually regained his faith through “the ministerial labours of the Revd Dr McAll.”6 In Manchester, he worked as a clerk in the firm of Radford’s and Company, iron founders and merchants, for four years until “the death of a confidential Servant” resulted in his being offered the post. As his acceptance “would … have been quite inconsistent with [his] views as to the ministry,” he consulted with Dr. McAll and the Rev. Mr. Scales and as a result declined the offer and instead set about “pursuing a course of private study.” He wrote a memoir called Memorials of Felix Neff, the Alpine Pastor in 1833.7 He had taught in “Dr. McAll’s Sabbath School, … been a visiting member of the Christian Instruction Society and … frequently addressed small congregations both in Manchester, and in an adjourning village.” He was “admitted to the communion of Dr. McAll’s church in February 1834.” In applying to the non-conformist Highbury College on 22 April 1835, he stated that he had “just completed his twenty-fourth year.8

Thomas Scales Ellerby attended Highbury College from 1835 to 1839. On 3 July 1840, he was married to Mary Bealey (c. 1810 – 18 August 1885), daughter of Ralph Bealey, bleacher, at the Providence Chapel, High Street, Rochdale, Lancashire, according to the rites and ceremonies of the Independents, by John Ely, Minister of Leeds.9 He was ordained at Islington Chapel, Middlesex, on 15 July 1840, for the English and American Church in St. Petersburg,10 which “was opened for public worship” on 24 August / 5 September 1840.11 The Ellerbys lived in “very nice apartments” in the church, which was “a very neat and pretty building, large, airy and roomy,” with an organ.12 Ellerby served in St. Petersburg from 1840 to 1853.13 In a history of the church, his sermons were said to have been “thoughtful and scholarly,” and he himself was described as “possessed of great ability and tact.”14 A parishioner said they “like[d] him very much,” found him “very amiable – pious & devoted & withal a good scholar, tho not so eloquent a speaker as Mr. [J. Croumbie] Brown.”15 There was a great increase in the membership of the church during his tenure.16 In 1844, he started Sunday services at the Alexandrofsky Head Mechanical Works (see Images 223–225) – holding them at Joseph Harrison Jr’s, house (see Images 239–240) – for the English and American mechanics employed there, “and partly as a result of these efforts there came into existence the Congregational Church at Alexandroffsky.”17 A feature of his preaching at Alexandrofsky was an annual sermon to the young.18 His poor health “compelled him in 1845, and again in 1849, to leave” Russia for a time, which created some difficulties, as he did not have a clergyman in his congregation who might stand in for him.19 While in England in 1845, he wrote “an appeal to the British Legislature,” asking that, as the British and American Chapel, “since [its] formation … twenty-five years ago,” had performed divine worship and regularly observed “the Rites of Baptism, and Burial according to the usages of the Congregational Dissenters of Great Britain,” its “right to perform the Marriage Ceremony” be recognized.20 In May or June 1853, his health failed “to such a degree that the physician thought the delay of another week dangerous.”21 He was safely in England by 2/14 June, and the fears that he might never “be able to live and labor again in [the] climate” of St. Petersburg proved true.22

The BRBC STP 1845, which also contains entries made in not-always-specified subsequent years, carries the information that the Ellerbys had two sons and two daughters and that “Eleonora Lee, nurse, spinster,” lived with them at the Chapel.23 In 1846, the Ellerbys had at least three daughters,24 and in 1848, the BRBC STP 1845 lists the three daughters as Lucy (St. Petersburg c. 1842 – Toronto, ON 18 July 1920), Alice (St. Petersburg 1844 – Toronto, ON 19 December 1900), and Emily (Manchester, Lancashire c. 1845 – Toronto, ON 29 January 1930).25

There is information that Ellerby next served as chaplain of the British Embassy in Vienna, but a check of Foreign Office lists of clergy at British embassies has failed to confirm this.26 He then settled in Toronto, Ontario, where he was pastor from 29 May 1856 to March 1866 of Zion Congregational Church, “historically, … the mother church of congregationalism in Ontario.”27 In 1866, he joined establishment:28 i.e., the Anglican Church. “He was ordained deacon on 28 October 1866, by the First Bishop of Huron”29 and, on 17 February 1867, priest. In 1866–1867, he served as incumbent of Exeter, from 1867–1870 was curate of St. George’s Church in Toronto, and from 1870–1882 incumbent of St. George’s in Sarnia, Ontario.30 He was superannuated from the Diocese of Huron in 188231 and took up residence again in Toronto, where, “on the death of Rev. Johnstone Vicars, in 1886 [he] was appointed by the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews to succeed him as their Canadian Agent, settled in this city.”32 Although elderly, Rev. Ellerby “threw himself into this work with great energy,” pursued “it with more than ordinary ability, perseverance and success,” and seems to have held this post until his death.33 In 1888, in her will dated 8 September, Mary Tyler (Ropes) Gellibrand, who had been a communicant of the British and American Chapel in St. Petersburg when Rev. Ellerby was rector, bequeathed one hundred pounds to him.34

Mary (Bealey) Ellerby died in Toronto on 18 August 1885, at the age of seventy-five, and was buried in St. James’ Cemetery. Reverend Ellerby died in his 83rd year on Saturday, 11 June 1892, in Toronto at his residence, 237 Spadina Avenue, and was buried on 14 June in St. James’ Cemetery,35 in the same plot as his wife. Lucy M. (age seventy-eight) and Emily C. (age eighty-five) are also buried there.

Alice Louisa Ellerby married George Mountain Evans (Ireland 1828 – Orillia, ON 23 May 1891) in Sarnia, Ontario, on 21 December 1870. The monument on their graves in St. James’ Cemetery records that four infant children are also buried there: Mary (d. 2 September 1874, one year, one month old); Edith (d. 2 January 1876, five days old), Theodore (d. 8 February 1877, four days old), and Henry (d. 17 December 1884, three years, nine months old). Buried here as well are two sons who survived: Charles F.E. Evans-Lewis (1871 – 10 May 1939) and Vernon L. Evans (1878 – April 1955).

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There was also a niece of Mary (Bealey) Ellerby’s in St. Petersburg working as governess to her aunt’s daughters. She was Sarah Bealey Schofield (b. Rochdale, Lancashire 30 October 1817; bap. Rochdale, Lancashire 28 December 1820; d. Stirling 5 February 1891; see Image 257),36 daughter of Mrs. Ellerby’s sister, Sarah (Bealey) Schofield (b. Radcliffe, Lancashire c. 1800 – after 1861)37 and of Robert Schofield (Yorkshire, England c. 1797 – Buenos Aires 23 September 1825).38 Her father, a merchant in South America, was a partner in a disastrous fishing and livestock business venture in the Falkland Islands in 1823–24.39 He died of alcoholism in Buenos Aires on 23 September 1825, at the age of twenty-eight, and was buried there in the Socorro Protestant Cemetery.40 After his death, her mother returned to England.41

Anna Whistler recorded that Sarah Bealey Schofield was in Russia in 1846 and 1847.42 In July 1848, she was still or again in Russia, and was recorded by her future husband, Charles Bell (1831 – Stirling 28 February 1915), as being among the respectful crowd at Alexandrofsky (she was staying at the Eastwicks) on 10/22 July, when his father’s coffin was being taken to St. Petersburg for a funeral service at the British and American Chapel.43 Sarah Bealey Schofield and Charles Bell were married at the Parish Church in the Parish of Radcliffe on 3 September 1857 from the house of her uncle, Richard Bealey, J.P., Radcliffe, Manchester.44 They continued to live in Russia, returning to England in 1867, when “Charles Bell left the firm of Muir and Merrilees.” They lived first in Brighton “for his health,” and then moved to Scotland.

Notes