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Living with parents at Marple, Cheshire.

Inmate at the Convent of the Good Shepherd boarding school, Blackley, Manchester.

The Convent of the Good Shepherd in Manchester was founded around 1870 in Victoria Park on the south side of the city centre, a little further out of the city than the Manchester Royal Infirmary, and it moved to Blackley on the north side of the city in the late 1880s.

The Good Shepherd sisters are an order of nuns that provides care for women in need. A publication in 1894 gave the following description of their work in the language of that time -

Objects -1st - To receive gratuitously girls and women who wish to reform their lives, make reparation for the past, and prepare themselves to earn an honest living in the future.

2nd - To receive those who have indifferent and dangerous homes, and those, who from want of early training or being without parents, find themselves in danger.

To instruct them thoroughly in their religion, and prepare them by forming them to habits of virtue and industry, for service, or to return to their homes. The inmates are employed mostly in household work, also laundry and needlework, with which it is a kindness to supply them. Many of the inmates, being delicate or advanced in years, cannot earn sufficient for their support, so that institutions depend in part on voluntary offerings. When an entrance fee or pension can be paid, it is gratefully accepted.

So, it looks as though Ellen was at risk, either from herself, or her parents.