ELAND, William

A lawyer and merchant, William was the longest serving of all of the MPs for Kingston-upon-Hull in the fifteenth century. While his place in the Eland family tree is uncertain, his paternal roots lay in the East Riding of Yorkshire and he was one of several Elands of Hull, including a namesake admitted to the freedom of the borough in 1423.10 J. Kermode, ‘Merchants of York, Hull and Beverley’ (Sheffield Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1990), app. 4; Kingston-upon-Hull bench bk. 2, BRE 1, p. 254. According to unverifiable visitation evidence, his mother was an heiress from Gloucestershire; if so, her interests in that county, where he never had any dealings, must have passed to an elder brother.11 Presumably, his putative maternal gdfa. was the Peter Hartland of Glos., esq., who entered into a bond in statute staple to Thomas Bromwich (probably the fa. of Thomas Bromwich*) and Thomas de Hevyn of Herefs. in 1416: C241/210/6. Whatever his exact antecedents, Eland probably owed his earliest advancement to his father-in-law, John Holme. A successful lawyer who later served as a baron of the Exchequer, Holme was well placed to facilitate his son-in-law’s entry into the law. By 1431 Eland had gained admission to Lincoln’s Inn, where he kept the Christmas vacations of that year and 1435. It is also possible that the young law student possessed a patron in the person of the Yorkshire esquire, Thomas Skargill of Ryther, who bequeathed six marks to Eland in his will of 1433.12 Baker, i. 628; Test. Ebor. ii (Surtees Soc. xxx), 36.

Like his father-in-law, Eland was one of a number of Yorkshire lawyers with trade connexions, and his more immediate friends and associates at Lincoln’s Inn included his kinsman, Simon Grimsby, and Thomas Ripplyngham, both of whom were from Hull.13 Baker, i. 628. Eland’s own activities as a merchant epitomise this coalescence of the legal and commercial, and he remained active as such until late in life. In February 1442 he and John Vavasour*, a fellow lawyer, secured a licence to trade with Iceland, the first known of his overseas ventures.14 C76/124, m. 18; CP40/862, rot. 403. By about 1460 Eland owned at least three ships. He imported salted fish from Iceland and the Baltic and occasionally wine from France, he exported unfinished cloth and victuals and he also traded with the Low Countries, where he employed a factor in Zeeland in Edward IV’s reign. Sometimes he went into partnership with other leading merchants of Hull. In 1466, for example, he exported beer, barley, butter and other victuals valued at £480 with Nicholas Ellis*, Thomas Etton and Edmund Copendale†, and four years later he shipped a similar cargo in association with John Haddlesey, Thomas Alcock and Roger Bushell†. He was probably particularly close to Ellis, with whom he served as a collector of customs and whose will he witnessed in 1478, while during his parliamentary career he sat alongside Bushell, Copendale, Haddlesey and Alcock’s brother, Robert†, in the Commons.15 Kermode, app. 4; VCH Yorks. (E. Riding), i. 69; Customs Accts. Hull, 1453-90 (Yorks. Arch. Rec. Ser. cxliv), 19, 26, 33, 37-38, 58, 83, 102, 110, 112-13, 143, 148, 153, 160, 172, 179, 181-5, 197-8; C76/159, m. 29; York registry wills, prob. reg. 2, f. 119v.

In September 1447, just over three years before he first entered Parliament, the burgesses of Hull retained Eland for his counsel with an annual fee of 13s. 4d.16 Kingston-upon-Hull recs., chamberlains’ acct. 1447-8, BRF 2/362b. He had yet, however, to gain the freedom of the town at that date, and it certainly did not monopolize his attention. In September 1448 he and Peter Preston, a yeoman of the Crown, secured a royal grant of the next presentation to the free chapel of Jesmond, Northumberland,17 CPR, 1446-52, p. 260. and in the following year he received felt caps from the Cinque Ports of New Romney and Rye in recognition of his services.18 E. Kent Archs., New Romney recs., assmt. bk. 1448-1526, NR/FAc 3, f. 4; E. Suss. RO, Rye mss, 60/1, f. 20v . His election to the Parliament of 1450-1 was unusual, in so far as he had not previously held office at Hull, but not unprecedented, since John Killingholme*, another lawyer with no past role in municipal administration, had sat for the town in 1449. Evidently Eland was the favoured candidate of the mayor and aldermen as a prospective MP, since he was admitted to the freedom of the borough just days before he was formally returned.19 Bench bk 1, BRG 1, f. 20v. His fellow MP was the mayor of Hull, Richard Anson*. According to visitation evidence, Anson’s wife Elizabeth was Eland’s sister. Brothers-in-law or not, they probably enjoyed a good relationship since Eland was one of those to whom Anson had entrusted his goods and chattels in January 1449.20 Vis. of the North, iii. 37; CCR, 1447-54, p. 178.

As a Member of his first Parliament, Eland spent considerably longer at Westminster than the actual duration of that assembly. The first session opened on 6 Nov. 1450 and closed on the following 18 Dec. but he was paid for 48 days; the second lasted from 20 Jan. 1451 until the following 29 Mar. but he received wages for the period 20 Jan.-19 Apr.; the last ran from 5 May 1451 until the end of that month but he was paid for 5 May-3 June. Unlike Anson, Eland did not receive an allowance for travelling between Hull and Parliament,21 Chamberlains’ acct. 1450-1, BRF 2/364. so raising the possibility that he remained at Westminster while that assembly was in recess. During the second session, he was appointed to his first ad hoc commission, a body charged with investigating an act of piracy, but his absence at Westminster meant that he cannot have given it his immediate attention.

The years immediately following the Parliament were a busy period for Eland. In 1452-3 he served as one of the governors of Lincoln’s Inn, in April 1453 the Crown appointed him as a collector of customs at Hull and in the following September he was retained by the corporation of York. In return for his counsel, the corporation paid him 13s. 4d. p.a., a fee he continued to receive for the rest of his life. In July 1454 Eland joined the commission of the peace in the East Riding as a member of the quorum, indicating that, like other lawyers, he was a working j.p.22 York City Chamberlains’ Acct. Rolls, 1396-1500 (Surtees Soc. cxcii), 108-9. His time as a customer did not always run smoothly, since on 5 Nov. 1455 he and his fellow collector, John Acclom*, were obliged to appear in the Exchequer to answer for failing to render account there. Committed to the Fleet prison for contempt, they were immediately released upon naming sureties, of whom Eland himself performed that role for Acclom.23 E159/232, fines Mich. rot. 12. Perhaps in anticipation of these proceedings, just days earlier Eland had taken the trouble to purchase a royal pardon. It referred to him as ‘lately of London’, where he must have spent much time as a lawyer, as well as ‘of Kingston-upon-Hull’. As befitted a member of the legal profession, it also described him as a ‘gentleman’ although, as another pardon he acquired later in the same decade shows, he was sometimes acknowledged as an ‘esquire’.24 C67/41, m. 23 (1 Nov. 1455); 42, m. 25 (1 May 1458). By 1457 Eland was the archbishop of York’s steward in his wife’s home town of Beverley; in the following year he began serving as a j.p. there and in Ripon; and by 1460 the townsmen of Beverley were employing him for his counsel.25 E. Riding of Yorks. Archs., Beverley acct. rolls, BC II/6/14. In 1458-9 the busy Eland served as sheriff of Hull and by the end of his term he was recorder there, an appointment confirming his status as the town’s most important lawyer. As recorder, he received 26s. 8d. p.a.: the fee was bestowed on him on 27 Sept. 1459, although it is unclear whether this was also the date of his appointment.26 Bench bk. 3a, BRB 1, f. 65.

Just weeks after completing his term as sheriff, Eland was elected to his second Parliament, the so-called ‘Parliament of Devils’ that assembled at Coventry to attaint the Yorkist lords.27 Ibid. f. 67v. In September 1460 the mayor and aldermen included him among their nominees for election to the following, Yorkist-dominated Parliament, but on this occasion he was not chosen. During this period of great political uncertainty, the authorities at Hull took various defensive measures, including the placing of a chain across the harbour, a project towards which Eland donated two hundredweight of iron, a larger contribution than that of any townsman. In May 1461, upon news of Edward IV’s arrival at York, he was among the leading burgesses who agreed to pay for a gift of wine to the new King. By then he was an alderman, although the exact date of his admission as such is not recorded.28 Ibid. ff. 72, 74v, 76v. On the following 4 June Eland was elected to Edward IV’s first Parliament, only for it to be adjourned until 4 Nov. nine days later. It appears that he and his fellow MP, John Green†, arrived at Westminster before news of the adjournment of 13 June reached them, since on 20 Aug. the mayor and aldermen ordered that they, ‘nowe burges of the parliament’ should receive wages for ten days, of which they had spent four riding to London, two staying there and four returning to Hull.29 Ibid. ff. 78v, 79v. In the meantime, at the request of Archbishop Booth, Eland was reappointed a j.p. in Beverley and Ripon. He and his fellow appointees (who included his father-in-law, John Holme) were particularly enjoined to deal with cases of ‘travelyngmen’, lollards and counterfeiters of money.30 CPR, 1461-7, p. 134. A fortnight after the Parliament, Eland took the trouble to purchase another royal pardon.31 C67/45, m. 27.

The mayor and aldermen of Hull also nominated Eland to the following Parliament. Although he was not initially chosen by the commonalty, this assembly was likewise postponed and he and John Day† were returned to the Commons at a new election on 3 Apr. 1463. There is no record of their attendance at the first two parliamentary sessions at Westminster and York but they departed for the third and final session, held at Westminster, on 16 Jan. 1465 and received wages until 28 Mar. that year, the last day of the Parliament. In April 1463, shortly before the Parliament opened, Eland, John Titelote* and John Day had agreed to support a soldier, fully armed and arrayed, for the contingent of 20 men that Hull sent to serve with the warden of the east march, John Neville, Lord Montagu, against the Lancastrian rebels in northern England.32 Bench bk. 3a, BRB 1, ff. 81v, 82, 87, 92; chamberlains’ acct. 1464-5, BRF 2/373. Eland had already had dealings with that lord, since he had witnessed a release of personal actions and suits that Neville (then Sir John Neville) had made to Anne, duchess of Exeter, in 1456,33 CCR, 1454-61, pp. 142-3. and he and Neville were fellow appointees of the Beverley and Ripon commission of the peace of 1458.

Eland was also linked with at least two other members of the powerful Neville family, Montagu’s aunt, Anne, dowager duchess of Buckingham, and his brother, George. By 1463, the duchess was employing him for his counsel, with a fee of 26s. 8d. p.a. drawn from her lordship of Holderness in the East Riding,34 C. Rawcliffe, Staffords, 225. while in 1465 George Neville, the new archbishop of York, reappointed him steward of the honour of Beverley. No doubt Eland’s association with the duchess gave rise to (or sprang from) his connexion with Hedon, a borough lying just a few miles east of Hull that was closely linked with the lordship of Holderness. During the 1450s the burgesses of Hedon had paid him an annual retainer of 40d. and other, ad hoc regards for his counsel.35 J.R. Boyle, Hedon, app. pp. lvi-lvii. The date of the Hedon chamberlains’ acct., calendared by Boyle, recording these payments is uncertain but it refers to the then steward of Holderness as John Constable, ‘esquire’. The s. and h. of Sir John Constable*, John had succeeded his fa. as steward of Holderness in 1450 and was kntd. between June 1460 and May 1461: Rawcliffe, 212; CPR, 1452-61, p. 682; 1461-7, p. 31. Eland’s Neville associations and his employment at Hedon provide further evidence of the standing he had come to enjoy as a lawyer, as did his agreement in 1466 to keep two vacations instructing younger members of Lincoln’s Inn.36 L.Inn Black Bks. 43.

In May the following year, the mayor and aldermen of Hull yet again nominated Eland for election to the Commons and on this occasion the commonalty also supported his candidature. Eland and his fellow burgess John Haddlesey† departed for Westminster on 10 May, well before the Parliament opened. They subsequently received 33 days’ wages for the first session, which ran from 3 June to 1 July 1467,37 Bench bk. 3a, BRB 1, f. 107v; chamberlains’ accts. 1466-8, BRF2/375, 376. but there is no surviving record of their attendance for the remainder of the assembly. In May 1468, during the final session, Eland was among the Members of both Houses named to a commission empowered to investigate an accusation of peculation against the keeper of the King’s exchange, Hugh Brice. In 1469 he and Haddlesey were re-elected to the Parliament summoned to meet at York in September that year but subsequently aborted. Eland was also returned to the Readeption Parliament of 1470-1 but, again, there is no record of how long he and his fellow burgess, John Day, spent in the House.38 Bench bk. 3a, BRB 1, f. 114.

Eland continued to dominate the parliamentary representation of Hull until 1484. In the Parliament of 1472-5 he sat alongside the alderman and former mayor, Edmund Copendale,39 Ibid. f. 115v. and in that of 1478 with Robert Alcock. One authority counts him among the Percy interest in the latter assembly. Yet, while he was certainly a feoffee of Henry, Percy, 4th earl of Northumberland, from at least 1475, and probably served on the earl’s council, the burgesses of Hull would have needed no prompting to re-elect a fellow burgess of his professional qualifications and very considerable parliamentary experience.40 M.A. Hicks, False, Fleeting, Perjur’d Clarence (revised edn. 1992), 217; CIPM Hen. VII, i. 542; R.R. Reid, King’s Council in the North, 59n. For the Parliament of 1478, Eland and Alcock received wages for 52 days’ service from 25 Dec. 1477, indicating that they departed for Westminster long before it opened on 16 Jan. 1478.41 Bench bk. 3a, BRB 1, f. 123v; chamberlains’ acct. 1477-8, BRF 2/381. The chief purpose of this assembly was to bring down George, duke of Clarence, who had named Eland as a feoffee before embarking with the King to France in 1475, as had William, Lord Hastings, the King’s chamberlain and lieutenant of Calais.42 CPR, 1467-77, pp. 529-30; E.W. Ives, Common Lawyers: Thomas Kebell, 95. In spite (or perhaps because) of this link with Clarence, Eland was placed on commissions charged with inquiring into the duke’s estates in Yorkshire shortly after the Parliament. Eland sat in the last Parliament of Edward IV’s reign alongside Roger Bushell. They departed for Westminster on 14 Jan. 1483 and arrived back home on the following 24 Feb. Apart from their ordinary parliamentary wages, they received 3s. 4d. to cover the costs they incurred obtaining a copy of an Act of Parliament relating to the merchants of the Hanse.43 Chamberlains’ acct. 1482-3, BRF 2/383. It is unclear which Act the Hull burgesses had copied, unless it was the proviso exempting the merchants of the Hanse from the alien subsidy granted in that Parl.: PROME, xiv. 413. It is likely that Eland was also elected to the abortive Parliament summoned in the name of Edward V to meet at Westminster on 25 June 1483, and he and William Brompton† were certainly chosen for that Richard III called for the following November, an assembly which, like its predecessor, never convened. A few months later, he was elected, again alongside Brompton, to his last Parliament. For the short assembly of early 1484, Hull paid its MPs wages for the period 24 Jan.-28 Feb. and assigned a further 5s. to Eland’s clerk, John Yele, for ‘divers bills made in the said Parliament’. The content of the bills is unknown.44 Bench bk. 3a, BRB 1, f. 134; chamberlains’ acct. 1483-4, BRF 2/384. Yele should perhaps be identified with John ‘Yole’, an apprentice of Eland who became a freeman of Hull in 1479: Kermode, app. 4.

Outside Parliament, Eland remained one of the most respected lawyers in the north of England during his later years. In May 1480, for example, he was included on a prestigious panel of arbiters appointed to settle a serious dispute between Brian Roucliffe, one of the barons of the Exchequer, and Sir William Plumpton*. The arbiters also included Sir Hugh Hastings†, who in his will of 1482 bequeathed to Eland a buck each year from his estates, in recognition of the good advice in law he had received from the MP.45 Plumpton Corresp. (Cam. Soc. iv), p. lxxxi; Test. Ebor. iii. 278. Following the accession of Henry VII, the by now elderly Eland continued to serve as recorder of Hull and a j.p. in the East Riding, and he was appointed to his last ad hoc commission in January 1488.

By then Eland was probably ailing, for he had made his will, a conventional and colourless document, on the previous 7 Sept.46 York registry wills, prob. reg. 5, f. 364. He sought burial in the church of the Holy Trinity at Hull, making provision for a modest funeral there and for a priest to celebrate his obit for a year after his death. For the further good of his soul, he assigned all his lands and tenements in Hull, Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire for the support of a perpetual chantry in the same church, directing the Hull alderman, Richard Doughty, and other feoffees to enfeoff them on the corporation of the town for that purpose. Save for a close at ‘Myton’, however, the will does not identify any specific properties.47 In spite of this connexion with Notts., the MP and his fam. are to be distinguished from the Elands of that co. and Derbys. Hereditary bailiffs of the honour of Peverel, in the 15th cent. these Elands included at least three Williams: J.T. Godfrey, Ct. of Honour of Peverel , 9-10, 24-25; CPR, 1461-7, p. 226-7; CCR, 1461-8, p. 175; CIPM Hen. VII, i. 917-8. The MP is confused with one or more of the Williams of Peverel by HP Biogs. ed. Wedgwood and Holt, 294, Kermode, app. 4, and J.T. Driver, ‘Parl. of 1472-5’ (Liverpool Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1982), pt. ii, 264-5. It is another source, one of the Hull bench books, that records that he acquired a plot of land in Kirklane from the executors of Thomas Oversey in the mid 1460s, to the loss of another prospective purchaser, John Titelote. The same bench book also shows that he obtained from the corporation in October 1458 the farm of the South Ferry, for three years at £24 p.a.48 Bench bk. 3a, BRB 1, ff. 66v, 72v, 73, 105v. Eland concluded his will by assigning the residue of his goods and chattels for the maintenance of his widow, Joan, and an unspecified number of unmarried daughters. He named Joan as his sole executor. The will was proved on 14 Sept. 1488.

The wills of two of Eland’s Holme in-laws provide a little more evidence for his children. First, his mother-in-law, Denise Holme, made bequests to his ‘six sons and daughters’ in her will of 3 Jan. 1471, in which she also left him £20 for his ‘good counsel’ to her executors. Secondly, his brother-in-law, Henry Holme of Beverley, appointed him overseer of his will of 31 Aug. the same year. Henry bequeathed cloth and silverware to his nephews, William and Edward Eland, and remembered Jonett and Denise Eland, almost certainly the MP’s daughters. Like the subject of this biography, Edward Eland trained as a lawyer but neither he nor the younger William features in their father’s will, perhaps because they had predeceased him.49 Test. Ebor. iii. 182-3, 192-5; Vis. of the North, iii. 38. It is unclear whether the Hugh Eland who served the MP as an apprentice before becoming a freeman of Hull in 1479 was also an immediate relative, although it is possible that John Eland, a merchant and shipowner of ‘Ermyn’ by Hull whom a chapman from Northumberland sued in the Chancery in the early 1480s, was another of Eland’s sons. It is likely that he was the John Eland admitted to the freedom of the town in 1475 and began serving as chamberlain there in the same year. This John was perhaps the father of John Eland†, a prominent burgess of the early Tudor period who sat for Hull in the Parliament of 1510, served several terms as mayor and received a knighthood in 1537 for his part in capturing a rebel involved in the Pilgrimage of Grace. Like the MP, he endowed a chantry in Holy Trinity church and was buried there after he died in 1542. His landed holdings at his death included properties in Beverley and Hedon, two of the boroughs in the East Riding with which the subject of this biography had previously been associated.50 Kermode, app. 4; C1/63/152; The Commons 1509-58, ii. 88. But Kermode makes the unlikely assumption that the chamberlain of 1475 and the MP of 1510 were one and the same person.