ELKYNGTON, Simon

The earlier biography suggests that Simon was the son of Robert Elkyngton, one of the Grimsby bailiffs in 1399,2 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 5-6. but it is more likely that his father was named John. In the Grimsby borough court in August 1414 our MP and John’s widow, Alice, brought an action as John’s executors. There are a few incidental details to be added to the earlier account of his career. In October 1423 he was one of two burgesses nominated to collect the expenses of the town’s representatives to the forthcoming Parliament; and at the mayoral election of 21 Sept. 1434 he was both candidate and elector, but polled only one vote.3 Grimsby ct. rolls 13 Hen. VI, 1/100/4/12; 1/101; chamberlains’ accts. 1/600/11. The death of Elkyngton’s father-in-law, John Cameryng, earlier in the same year brought him a modest country estate a few miles inland from Grimsby, and these holdings explain why he was asseesed on an annual income of £5 in the subsidy returns of 1436.4 CIPM, xxiv. 243; E179/136/198. More significantly, it is probable that he represented his native borough in three rather than two Parliaments. The Linconshire return for the Parliament of 1437 names one of the Grimsby MPs as ‘John Elkyngton’, but since our MP was still then very active in the borough’s affairs, it is likely that ‘John’ is an error for ‘Simon’. On 20 June 1437, three months after the end of this Parliament, he sued out a general pardon.5 C219/15/1; C67/38, m. 19.

Little evidence survives of Elkyngton’s commercial activities, but on 20 July 1424, described as a merchant, he joined two other Grimsby merchants in buying a ship called Kateryne for £20 from a merchant of Colchester. He was alive as late as Michaelmas term 1446, when facing an action for a debt of £5 brought by the local lawyer, Richard Duffield*.6 CP40/671, rot. 535; 743, rot. 400.