4149. Robert Southey to Ebenezer Elliott, 3 March 1824

 

Address: To/ Mr E. Elliott/ Sheffield
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298 
MS: Sheffield Archives, MD2191/30. ALS; 3p.
Previously published: E. R. Seary, ‘Robert Southey and Ebenezer Elliott: Some New Southey Letters’, Review of English Studies, 15 (October 1939), 418–419.

Keswick. 3 March. 1824
My dear Sir

I have this day heard from Mr Tillbrook. His advice is that your son should not commence his residence at Cambridge before Oct. 1825.

(1)

Ebenezer Elliott (1807–1871), eldest son of Ebenezer Elliott. He matriculated at Peterhouse College, Cambridge, in 1825 as a sizar (i.e. a student receiving some form of financial assistance) and obtained his BA in 1829. He became a clergyman and was Perpetual Curate of New Mill, Huddersfield 1841–1843, and Lothersdale, near Skipton 1844–1848, later going to St Kitts in the West Indies and serving as Rector of Christ Church, Nichola Town, and St Mary’s, Cayou.

The intermediate time may bring him greatly forward, under proper tuition, & he then promises him “fair play, & kind treatment, – with the hope also of the best piece of patronage he can bestow upon an under-graduate, – that of Chapel Clerk, – provided he is qualified for it. For this office it is an indispensable qualification that he should profess the orthodox principles of the Church of England. – There is nothing of which I am more clearly, fully & conscientiously convinced than that those principles are the genuine truths of the Gospel, & that Unitarianism has not even the shadow of evidence for its support. It is in fact but the shadow of Christianity.

The Chapel Clerk has nothing to pay for rooms, or for dinner in the Hall: this is fairly worth 20£ per annum Other little allowances which are given him amount to about 30£ more per annum. And should he obtain an additional scholarship that may be 8 or 10£ more.

At the outset the expence of furnishing his rooms is estimated at 25£. Should he get him the Clerkship, (which is highly probable, & depends very much <almost wholly> upon himself) he will come into its receits at the Xmas following his entrance; & after that time Mr Tillbrook says 20£ a year will more than pay his College Tutors bill, after the deductions due to him have been made. If he can command from 100 to 150£, that sum will the whole of his collegiate expences during his undergraduateship will be provided for.

This is a very desirable prospect. – Xxx Nothing in the University can be gained without desert, & every thing by it. Give my best wishes to him & Mrs Elliott,

(2)

Frances Gartside (b. 1781). She and Ebenezer Elliott had married in 1806 and had thirteen children.

& believe me

Yours with sincere good will
Robert Southey.

Notes

1. Ebenezer Elliott (1807–1871), eldest son of Ebenezer Elliott. He matriculated at Peterhouse College, Cambridge, in 1825 as a sizar (i.e. a student receiving some form of financial assistance) and obtained his BA in 1829. He became a clergyman and was Perpetual Curate of New Mill, Huddersfield 1841–1843, and Lothersdale, near Skipton 1844–1848, later going to St Kitts in the West Indies and serving as Rector of Christ Church, Nichola Town, and St Mary’s, Cayou.[back]
2. Frances Gartside (b. 1781). She and Ebenezer Elliott had married in 1806 and had thirteen children.[back]
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