The son of an iron worker who was an ultra-Calvinist and a political radical, Ebenezer Elliott was born in 1781 at Masbrough, Rotherham. Elliott was disfigured by small-pox when six years old, and received only a rudimentary education. He worked at his father's business from a young age. When he married a Rotherham girl who brought a small fortune to the marriage, he invested in the family firm. The business was already virtually bankrupt however, and Elliott lost all the money. He appears to have blamed this on the protectionist Corn Laws which were passed by Lord Liverpool's government in 1815 as a reaction to the end of the Napoleonic wars. When Elliott's wife's family raised some money in 1821, he used it to begin a business …
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Citation: Van-Hagen, Stephen. "Ebenezer Elliott". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 October 2006; last revised 19 September 2007. [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1414, accessed 26 November 2024.]