Ellen Elizabeth Lightfoot was the daughter of The Venerable Thomas Fothergill Lightfoot and his wife Ann Ellen, born Fothergill. In 1898 she married Reverend William Nathan Charles Marchant (1870-1942), Church of England minister at Clanwilliam during 1899-1903. They were survived by a son and a daughter. Both of them presented invertebrates to the South African Museum in Cape Town, but Mrs Marchant was the more important collector. Reverend Marchant initiated their contributions with three spiders in 1899. The next year Mrs Marchant sent in 136 insects representing 43 species, most of them moths. Fourteen species of moths were new to the museum's collections, as were two genera and species of the order Neuroptera (lacewings). In 1901 she presented various other land invertebrates, including 40 spiders of which two were new to the museum. Further lepidoptera, chiefly moths collected at Clanwilliam, followed in 1903. Of the 71 species five were new to the museum.
