Ella Family as Corn Millers

Hi, my interest are the water mills at Borrowby, Thornton-le-Street and in North , also possibly one at and/or . My family direct line of descent can be traced and proven back to Thornton- le-Street c.1674, i.e. a James Ella, his wife Mary and their children. The scribed forms in various documents for the family surname pre-1700, e.g. parish registers etc, are Eller, Ellar, Ellay and Ella, etc.

There is a Goods Inventory for James Ellay (Ella) dated 1691 at the Durham University Archives. He was of Thornton-le-Street in North Riding of York- shire. This G.I. lists his itams/goods in his house and also in the 'mill'. So I think he was a corn-miller at the ruined water mill behind the church. When I visited this village in 1988, I noticed that the village sign was on an old mill-stone, so think this would have come from the mill behind the church down by the stream known as Cod-beck. About c.1698, James Ella's son, also a James and his mother Mary, were then living at nearby Borrowby. In some land tax documents etc., they were of Borrowby Mill. This mill is now a private house on Broad-Beck, but don't know if it still has a water-wheel ?. In the 18th century (c.1760s), a member of the family named William Ella was scribed in various parish registers has a Millwright of Borrowby. His son, Robert Ella (born Borrowby 1768) became a corn-miller in Tadcaster. The parish registers for Tadcaster are very good in that they list not only the off-spring of Robert and his wife Betty, but their parents also, e.g. Robert Ella's father William Ella stating he was a Millwright of Borrowby. The last member of the family to be a corn-miller, was another William Ella, son of said Robert & Betty Ella who was born at Tadcaster in 1796. He became a miller at Allerton Bywater near Castleford in the West Riding of Yorkshire who died in the 1850s. So, at least after the English Civil Wars, some members of the Ella family had become corn-millers from at least 1674 to c.1850s. I say some, because others were yeoman landowners, etc. There seems to be little left of the small water mills in and, very little on their history.

Most of my information was from the North Yorkshire County Record Office in Northallerton, e.g. Land Registry deeds/documents for members of the Ella family in the old North Riding pre-1780s and also Parish Registers. Also, Wills and Parish Registers at the Borthwick Inst. on Historical Research in York, often the Parish Registers giving 'corn miller' and 'millwright', for the head of the family.

Although I'm not a Mormon, their HQ in Salt Lake City in the USA have the listings and ref. numbers from the Land Registry for Ella family members in the North Riding of Yorkshire, these having been donated by me, the original documents being at the N.Y.R.O. in Northallerton.

Emailed to the Mills Archive 31 August 2002; 8 September 2002 Ray & Cath Ella, (Mr & Mrs), 28, Edrich Way, Bowthorpe, Norwich, NR5-9NX.