Place Name
Edward Ellerton (1770 – 1851) was a former a master of Magdalen College, Oxford University, and was later elected fellow and bursar. He was a generous benefactor to the university launching various scholarships and prizes including one for the best essay on some theological subject. He also founded an annual exhibition for the best reader of the lessons in Magdalen College chapel, and in 1849 established an annual exhibition for the best scholar among the choristers; and in his will be founded two annual exhibitions for Magdalen students in Hebrew. As a Doctor of Divinity he was appointed to numerous positions within the church including perpetual curacy of Horspath, Oxfordshire, in 1814, and to the perpetual curacy of Sevenhampton, Gloucestershire, in 1825. For a time he also acted as curate to Martin Routh, the president of Magdalen. A fierce anti Roman Catholic, in 1845 Ellerton published a brief treatise on The Evils and Dangers of Tractarianism (a movement of protestants adopting a High Church style much like Roman Catholics). At least a part of the manor of All Farthing, which this street was once in, was owned by Thomas Sheppard, himself a Doctor of Divinity from Magdalen College. When Thomas died he left his fortune to his wife Sophia Sheppard, who became a generous benefactor to her husband’s former college, leaving them extensive land in Earlsfield. The college began to develop it for housing from the early 1930s, naming the streets after places and people that were connected with it. Magdalen is one of the wealthiest colleges in Oxford.
