Hi Helena,
I am the Ellison descendant who posted the will. I cannot trace my ancestry directly to to the will writer, William Ellison, but I can get back certainly as far as Thomas Ellison who was born before about 1728 in Cullingworth. As the village was very small (by 1780, 8 farmsteads and a row of tiny cottages in what is now Station Road, then Towngate) it is very likely that he is an ancestor of some sort. I have traced the family back as far as 1378 when a Johannes Ellyson paid 4d (the rate for a married man employed in agriculture) in the Poll Tax of Richard II.
The family were 'Yeoman Farmers' or 'good substantial men' and took over quite a bit of land in the enclosures of 1816.
My mother always said that 'they gave their land to the Church' which caused a great deal of family upset. It is true that in the census returns from 1841 onwards they were not listed as farmers and I think it is very likely that they did give it all away or lose it in some way.
One of them, John Ellison (my GGG grandfather) born in 1756, who was a farmer living in Towngate, gave the Methodists a barn which was converted into a chapel which opened in 1806. His gift was conditional on his being allocated the 'front pew of the gallery, lined with green silk and secured for his use for ever.' I don't know where the barn was as it is not shown on the 1816 enclosure map, but a stone built chapel opened on what is now Church Street in 1824 which is now converted into two houses.
The Parish Church was opened in 1853 to try to stem the spread of nonconformism. Before that time the inhabitants were baptised, married and buried in Bingley. Thomas Ellison (my GG grandfather) was buried in the new churchyard in 1857 and his wife Sarah in 1861. Their gravestone is very weathered but I would be very grateful indeed for any information you could glean from the churchyard. He is the one who seems to be responsible for losing the land.
From the time of the first census in which the records were not destroyed (1841) I have detailed information. There was a row of cottages listed in the later ones called 'Ellison Row' but I have not been able to pinpoint its position. I think it may have run behind the shops where 'Ellison's Butchers is now. I think I must be distantly related to them if they are descended from a Cullingworth family.
I have much more information than I have typed here, but it has all been collected at a distance and I have no prospect of visiting to verify things. The Internet, Google and 'Roots' are wonderful!
Hope you enjoy living in Cullingworth.
Hoo