❧ John Ella senior – John Ella’s paternal grandfather

Baptized 1741 at Kir[k]by Knowle; died 1799, buried at All Saints’ Church, Loughborough.

A farmer in Yorkshire, he took other work when he settled in Loughborough (1774). He is described by William Grainge (The Vale of Mowbray: a Historical and Topographical Account of Thirsk and its Neighbourhood; London: Simpkin, Marshall, 1859, p. 232) as a ‘civil engineer’; this follows John Ella’s description of him in EllaC, ms 88/vi, and concurs with evidence in records of canal surveying on the River Trent in the late eighteenth century (West Yorkshire Archive Service, Wakefield, c229/35/6/2). He also worked as a distributor for the Leicester Journal (see death notice, 23 Aug 1799).

Letters of administration, granted thirty years after his death to his daughter (he left no will), describe him as a ‘Gentleman’ and ‘late of Loughborough’ (LRO, pr/t/1829/51).

❧ Richard Ella - John Ella’s father

Born in 1769, probably in the Kir[k]by Knowle area of the North Riding. According to notes made by John Ella (EllaC, ms 88/vi), Richard’s birthplace was Thirsk. Died 1822, buried at St Martin’s Church, Leicester.

Moved to Loughborough while a child. Apprenticed to the baker William Woodcock in 1784, then to Henry King (1787) and later to John Young of Loughborough (Register of the Freemen of Leicester : ii: 1770–1930, ed. Henry Hartopp; Leicester: Corporation of the City of Leicester, 1933, p. 466).

Married Kitty Goddard (born 1778; died 1838) on 16 Feb 1801 at St Margaret’s Church, Leicester. Her parents, Joseph Goddard (see below) and Ann Bown [sic], had been married in the same church in 1774.

❧ Joseph Goddard – John Ella’s maternal grandfather

Baptized Kirby-Muxloe, Leicestershire, in 1751; died 1839.

Probably the Joseph Goddard with a carpentry business in Belgrave Gate, Leicester, who is listed in the extant rate book for St Margaret’s parish (1801) and in trade directories from 1805. Also probably the same Joseph Goddard noted by Hartopp (1770–1930) as the master of a carpentry apprentice who completed his training in 1796.