Biography

Ephraim was born about 1835 at Bramley, Yorkshire (between Leeds and Bradford), the son of Ahi Ellis and Mary Ann Waterhouse. Ahi was a woollen spinner and his children followed him into the trade. In the 1861 census of Farsley, Ephraim is shown as a 25-year-old woollen weaver.

On 19 June 1862 Ephraim married Christiana Hustler, the daughter of Benjamin Hustler, also a clothier or woollen weaver, and Elizabeth Lister. Christiana was born at Rodley on 31 July 1838, according to civil registration, although the gravestone gives her birth-date as 29 July 1838. Both were living at Bramley. Over the next few years, Ephraim and Christiana had four children born at Farsley, Yorkshire: Sarah Ann (1864), Florence Helena (1865), Charles (28 April 1867), and Arthur (12 October 1868).

The family decided to emigrate to New Zealand on the offer of a manager’s job there for Ephraim. With them went Christiana’s older sister Dorothy, with her husband William Nicholson and children. They sailed from London on the Surat on 26 September 1873. The trip must have been less than pleasant for Christiana. She was in the latter stages of pregnancy, and a baby boy was born on 28 December 1873 but only survived 24 hours. So she was far from well when the Surat ran aground at the Catlins on New Year’s Day, 1874. Like most of the passengers, the Ellises were left with what they stood up in. Their problems were compounded because Christiana was unfit to travel, and when they were able to make their way to Dunedin three weeks later, Ephraim had lost his job as manager.

Two more children were born in New Zealand: Benjamin (9 December 1876) and Harry (1879).

Ephraim eventually turned to making flock for mattresses with his brother-in-law in the Kaikorai Valley. This business was later taken over by his son Arthur, who had worked in it from boyhood. Charlie, after serving an apprenticeship at Reid and Gray in Dunedin, emigrated in about 1887 to Port Phillip, Victoria, where he joined the army, which he made his career. He died in Sydney on 8 October 1941.

Information is from: English censuses, English birth, death and marriage certificates, The Wreck of the ‘Surat’ by Bruce E. Collins, the Surat’s register of births, deaths and marriages on the voyage, contemporary and anniversary newspaper accounts, Ephraim’s letter to his older sister Mercy in December 1894 (held by the Catlins Historical Society), an entry on Arthur Ellis in a New Zealand biographical book, Australian Archives records for Charlie’s enlistment in World War I, and his New South Wales death certificate.

Others buried here: Ephraim’s wife Christiana.