John Lodge Ellerton

Who was John Lodge Ellerton?

John Lodge Ellerton was an English composer of classical music.

Ellerton was born in Cheshire with the name of John Lodge. According to the Dictionary of National Biography of 1889, he attended Rugby School and graduated with an MA from Brasenose College Oxford University in 1828. Between 1829 and 1831 he studied under Pietro Terziani in Rome, where he wrote 7 operas in Italian. In 1837 he adopted the name of Ellerton and on 24 August that year married Henrietta Barbara Lumley, the sister of the 8th Earl of Scarbrough. His English opera "Domenica" was produced at Drury Lane in 1838, but this was unsuccessful; his oratorio Paradise Lost, published in 1857, had more critical success although apparently few performances.

In 1835 and 1838 the Catch Club awarded him prizes for glees; he was involved with choral and vocal composition throughout, but his major contribution was in the realm of chamber music.

In 1855 he entertained Richard Wagner in London. In his memoirs Wagner accorded Ellerton "a fine, amiable mind".

Ellerton died at his home in Connaught Place, Hyde Park, London, in 1873.