ELAND, John (by 1484-1542), of Kingston-upon-Hull, Yorks.

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. by 1484, ?s. of John Eland of Kingston-upon-Hull. m.Rose, 4da. Kntd. 1537.2

Offices Held

Sheriff, Kingston-upon-Hull 1506-7, mayor 1510-11, 1517-18, 1524-5, 1541-2; commr. subsidy 1512, 1514, 1515, sewers, Yorks. 1538; jt. overseer of the King’s works at Kingston-upon-Hull 1541.3

Biography

John Eland was probably the son of a namesake who had been chamberlain of Hull in 1475, and a kinsman of William Eland, a customer of Hull and cloth exporter in the late 15th century; in dealing with property between 1525 and 1536 he described himself as kinsman and executor of Richard Hanson, and in his will he asked to be buried next to his father in Trinity church. A merchant of the staple by 1505, he appears in the Hull customs accounts of 1519-20 as exporting lead and importing fish, figs and iron. By 1525 he was rich enough to be assessed for subsidy among the 16 highest payers in Hull.4

Eland came into prominence through his part in the aftermath of the Pilgrimage of Grace. In January 1537 he and another alderman captured a rebel, John Hallam of Calkhill, who was trying to enter Hull. Eland was rewarded with an annuity of £20 and, after being despatched to Cromwell by the 3rd Duke of Norfolk with a letter of commendation, was knighted; grants to him and his wife in 1540 and 1541 of tithes in Anlaby and Wolfreton may have been a further sign of favour. He was involved in an unexplained change in the mayoralty when the King was in Hull in October 1541; John Johnson, chosen mayor on 30 Sept., withdrew on the following day in favour of Eland. The episode may have been connected with the Privy Council’s appointment three days later of Eland as one of four overseers of the fortifications and King’s works at Hull.5

Eland might have been expected to follow his first election to Parliament, which took place before his first mayoralty, by at least one other during the next 30 years, but unless he was returned in 1523 or 1542, when the names of the Members are lost, he sat only in 1510. If the King’s interest in him extended to his nomination for the Parliament of 1542 he cannot have attended more than its first session for he died on 6 May 1542. Some years earlier he had endowed a chantry in Holy Trinity church with 13 tenements and eight garths worth £8 4s. a year. By his will of 29 Apr. 1542 he gave his wife a life interest in all his lands in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire besides plate and household goods worth £112, his horses and all his ‘benefits at Calais’. The will was proved on his widow’s behalf on 11 July 1542. According to the inquisition his heirs to lands in Beverley, Hedon, Molescroft and Wigton were his kinsmen John Hawsewell of London, Edward Musgrave, John Rokesbie, William Cheyne and Thomas Crathorne, gentlemen.6

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: M. K. Dale

Notes

  • 1. Kingston-upon-Hull, chamberlains’ rolls.
  • 2. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Test. Ebor. vi (Surtees Soc. cvi), 152-3; LP Hen. VIII, xii.
  • 3. T. Gent, Kingston-upon-Hull (1735), 106, 108-9, 113; Statutes, iii. 85, 112, 175; E179/279/1, m. 5; LP Hen. VIII, xiii, xvi, xvii.
  • 4. L. M. Stanewell, Cal. Anct. Deeds, Kingston-upon-Hull, D. 468, 528, 563, M. 479(42); HP, ed. Wedgwood, 1439-1509 (Biogs.), 294; Early Yorks. Woollen Trade (Yorks. Arch. Soc. rec. ser. lxiv), 34, 114 and n.; CPR, 1494-1509, p. 448; Bronnen tot de Geschiedenis van den Handel met England, Schotland en Ierland, ed. Smit, i. 277-9, 307 n. 1, 312 n. 2; VCH Yorks. (E. Riding ) i. 159.
  • 5. LP Hen. VIII, xi-xiii, xv-xvii; VCH Yorks. (E. Riding ), i. 91.
  • 6. C142/65/78, 89; Yorks. Chantry Surv. (Surtees Soc. xcii), 342-3; Test. Ebor. vi. 152-3; Dugdale’s Vis. Yorks. ed. Clay, i. 299.