DALTON, John

Although he came from one of the borough’s leading families, John Dalton is, on the available evidence, one of the more obscure of Newcastle’s MPs in Henry VI’s Parliaments. His father, aside from representing the borough in the Parliament of May 1413, served as sheriff and customs collector there, and attested as many as seven of the borough’s parliamentary elections. By contrast, John is not recorded as either attestor or borough office-holder.3 ‘John Dalton’ is named as collector of customs in the port in Feb. 1416 but this is almost certainly an error for his father: The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 745. Yet there can be no doubt that the surviving records underestimate his importance. This is clear from the grand marriage he made at an unknown date before May 1446, to one of the daughters of a leading knight from the palatinate of Durham, Sir William Elmden. Not only was she of high social status, she was an heiress, albeit one with expectations not commensurate with the quality of her family connexions. Her mother, Elizabeth, was one of the five coheiresses of her brother, Sir Gilbert Umfraville, who had died at the battle of Baugé in 1421, and her death in 1424 had meant that her small share of the Umfraville estates would eventually pass to her children. It was not, however, until May 1446 that a series of inquisitions before Bishop Neville’s escheator determined the proper descent of the Umfraville inheritance and the four daughters of Elizabeth Umfraville (including Elizabeth and her husband, Dalton) were licensed to enter the manor of Wheatley, in County Durham, their fifth part of Sir Gilbert’s estate.4 DURH3/46, mm. 5, 21.

Despite Dalton’s apparent inactivity in public affairs, his marriage gave him status enough to secure election for his native town to the Parliament of February 1449, but his election did not herald a new period of activity. His only recorded administrative activity thereafter is his appointment to a commission of gaol delivery in December 1454. What is known of his private activities relates to Kingston-upon-Hull rather than Newcastle. His mother had, in the late 1420s, married the wealthy Hull merchant, John Bedford†, and after his death in 1451, Dalton, as one of his executors, took a part in the foundation of a chantry in his memory in the Hull church of Holy Trinity.5 The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 169; C143/481/25. Later, in the will she drew up in September 1459, his mother made generous bequests to both him and his wife. Aside from a significant quantity of plate and household goods, he was to have her lands in ‘le Hygate’ in Hull together with an annual rent of 8s. in Newcastle, from the latter of which he was to maintain prayers for his father’s soul in the Friars Minor in Newcastle. No more is known of him.6 Test. Ebor. ii. (Surtees Soc. xxx), 234-7.