ELSDEN, George (b.c.1530), of Lyme Regis, Dorset.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. c.1530, yr. s. of Thomas Elsden of Lyme Regis by Joan, 3rd da. of William Bond of London and Lutton, Dorset; bro. of William. ?m. 1s. 3da.1

Offices Held

Official, Admiralty ct., Devon by 1560; town clerk, Lyme Regis by 1577; ?dep. customer, Lyme Regis.2

Biography

A younger son in a family prominent at Lyme Regis, George Elsden may have owed his return for Reigate, a borough in the patronage of William, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham, to a recommendation from the high steward of Lyme, John Paulet, Lord St. John, whose son Sir William Paulet was married to one of Howard’s daughters. If Elsden was already an official of the Admiralty court of Devon, he would have been the more acceptable to Howard who was admiral for the greater part of Mary’s reign. The John Elsden who sat for Bletchingley, another borough under Howard’s control, in the Parliament of 1563 may have been of the same family.

Although Elsden was to settle at Lyme Regis, where in 1562 he inherited property from his father, little is known of his early career. He may, as a younger son, have been sent to London: in April 1556 a servant of the chancellor was acquitted of the murder of a servant of George Ellesdon, described as a gentleman of London, and in December 1562 a George Elsdon was one of the creditors appointed an administrator of the goods of William Harlowe, a citizen of London and ‘writer of the Court Letter’. The date of Elsden’s death is unknown.3

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: S. R. Johnson

Notes

  • 1. Date of birth estimated from that of elder brother, J. C. Roberts, ‘Partly. Rep. Devon and Dorset 1559-1601’ (London Univ. M. A. thesis, 1958), unpaginated; Hutchins, Dorset, ii. 78; Som. and Dorset N. and Q. ii. 226.
  • 2. Roberts, op. cit.; Exeter city lib. DD 61418B; Lyme Regis mayors’ accts. 1573, f. 16; E134/16.
  • 3. PCC 17 Streat; CPR, 1555-7, pp. 61-62; PCC Admins. ed. Glencross, ii. 33; C. Welch, Reg. London Freemen (London and Mdx. Arch. Soc.), 58.