Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/343

  of clerk of the House of Commons, where his services were highly valued, especially during the Long parliament. In 1648 he resigned his appointment to avoid taking part in the proceedings against Charles I (, Memorials, 1732, p. 364), and retired to Hounslow in Middlesex, where he died, and was buried in St. Margaret's, Westminster, 1654. Elsynge was a man of considerable learning and ability and a good scholar. Whitelocke and Selden were among his friends. His works are:
 * 1) 'Of the Form and Manner of Holding a Parliament in England,' 1663 (apparently derived from a manuscript in eight chapters, of similar scope, written by his father, 1626; the third edition was published in 1675, and a new and enlarged edition, edited by Tyrwhitt, in 1768).
 * 2) 'A Tract concerning Proceedings in Parliament.'
 * 3) 'A Declaration or Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom,' 1642 (re-printed in Rushworth's 'Historical Collection,' vol. iv., and in E. Husband's 'Remonstrances,' 1643, p. 195).
 * 4) 'Method of Passing Bills in Parliament,' 1685 (reprinted in 'Harleian Miscellany').



ELTON, CHARLES ABRAHAM (1778–1853), author, only son of the Rev. Sir Abraham Elton, fifth baronet, by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Durbin, alderman of Bristol, was born at Bristol on 31 Oct. 1778. He was educated at Eton, and at the age of fifteen received a commission in the 48th regiment, in which he rose to the rank of captain. He served with the 4th regiment in Holland under the Duke of York. He was afterwards lieutenant-colonel of the Somersetshire militia. On the death of his father (23 Feb. 1842) he became sixth baronet. He married in 1804 Sarah, eldest daughter of Joseph Smith, merchant of Bristol, by whom he had five sons and eight daughters. The two eldest sons were drowned in 1819, while bathing near Weston-super-Mare. The third, Arthur Hallam (b. 19 April 1818), succeeded to the baronetcy, and died 14 Oct. 1883. His seventh daughter, Mary Elizabeth, married her cousin, Frederick Bayard, fourth son of the fifth baronet, and was mother of the present Charles Isaac Elton, M.P., and author of 'Origins of English History' (, Peerage). The eighth daughter, Jane Octavia, married [q.v.] Elton's sister, Julia Maria, married Henry Hallam the historian. Elton was a man of cultivated tastes. He was a strong whig, and spoke at the Westminster hustings on behalf of Romilly and Hobhouse; but latterly he lived much in retirement at his house, Clevedon Court. He died at Bath on 1 June 1853.

He published: 
 * 1) 'Poems,' 1804.
 * 2) 'Remains of Hesiod, translated into English verse.'
 * 3) 'Tales of Romance, and other Poems, including selections from Propertius,' 1810.
 * 4) 'Specimens of the Classical Poets in a chronological series from Homer to Tryphiodorus, translated into English verse,' 1814 (with critical observations prefixed to each specimen; reviewed in the 'Quarterly Review,' xiii. 151-8).
 * 5) 'Remains of Hesiod, translated... with notes,' 1815 ('by C. A. E.')
 * 6) 'Appeal to Scripture and Tradition in Defence of the Unitarian Faith' (anon.), 1818.
 * 7) 'The Brothers, a Monody [referring to the death of his sons], and other Poems,' 1820.
 * 8) 'History of Roman Emperors,' 1825.
 * 9) 'Δεύτεραι Φροντίδες. Second Thoughts on the Person of Christ &hellip; containing reasons for the Authors Secession from the Unitarian Communion and his adherence to that of the Established Church,' 1827.

ELTON, EDWARD WILLIAM (1794–1843), actor, was born in London, in the parish of Lambeth, in August 1794, and was trained for the law in the office of a solicitor named Springhall in Verulam Buildings, Gray's Inn. His father, whose name was Elt, was a schoolmaster in the neighbourhood of Tottenham Court Road, and got up plays among his scholars. In these, at the Sans Souci Theatre in Leicester Place, and subsequently at Pym's private theatre, Wilson Street, Gray's Inn Lane, Elton acted as a youth. After joining a strolling company, he appeared, 1823, as utility actor at the Olympic, playing in 'A Fish out of Water,' where he made the acquaintance of Tyrone Power. At Christmas he went to the Liverpool Amphitheatre, where the following year, after a summer engagement at Birmingham, under [q. v.], he played Napoleon in the spectacle of the 'Battle of Waterloo.' He then, at the Theatre Royal, Liverpool, played Cominius in 'Coriolanus.' After starring in Chester, Worcester, Shrewsbury, and elsewhere, he attracted in Manchester the favourable notice of Charles Young, with whom he appeared in Norwich and Cambridge. His efforts in Shakespearean parts were not very successful. With a fair country reputation, however, he came in 1831 to the Garrick Theatre in Whitechapel, opening under Conquest and Wynn in Richard III.