According to the Dictionary of National Biography of 1889,[1] he attended Rugby School and graduated with an MA from Brasenose College, Oxford University in 1828.
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 Mass in D appeared in 1843: a reviewer wrote, "This is the composition of an amateur, and evidently one who has studied in the right school... it is by no means a discreditable work, nor undeserving of attention.
The same may be said of the Credo, and following movements...."[4] In 1835 and 1838 the Catch Club awarded him prizes for glees;[5] he was involved with choral and vocal composition throughout, but his major contribution was in the realm of chamber music.
In his memoirs Wagner accorded Ellerton "a pleasant and dignified who was a poet, a music-lover and alas, a composer to boot".