Elliott, Ebenezer

(1781-1849)

   "The Corn-Law Rhymer" was born at the New Foundry, Masborough, parish of Rotherham, Yorkshire. His forebears had the reputation of being border raiders, stealing from both the English and the Scots. When seventeen he wrote his first poem, "Vernal Walk," dedicated to Miss Austen. He became a master founder in Sheffield and in his leisure hours he studied botany, collected plants and flowers, and developed a great love for nature. His fortunes were mixed; he gained, he lost; his life work became the repeal of the iniquitous Corn Laws, for which he blamed his misfortunes and upon which he focused his poetry. He died at Great Houghton near Barnsley, having lived to see the hated "bread tax" abolished in 1849. A bronze statue to his memory was erected in the market-place of Sheffield in 1854. Some of his publications: Night, a Descriptive Poem, 1818. The Village Patriarch, 1829. Corn Law Rhymes, 1831. Poems, 1834. More Prose and Verse, 1850. Some of his other poems: "British Rural Cottages in 1842," "England in 1844," "The Cornlaw Catechism," "The Splendid Village," "The Year of Seeds."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). More Verse and Prose by the Cornlaw Rhymer, Ebenezer Elliot. Charles Fox, 1850. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The New Oxford Book of Romantic Period Verse. Jerome J. McGann. Oxford University Press, 1993. The Oxford Book of Satirical Verse. Geoffrey Grigson, ed. Oxford University Press, 1980. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. Tygers of Wrath: Poems of Hate, Anger, and Invective. X.J. Kennedy, ed. University of Georgia Press, 1981.