Elderfield's Civill Right of Tythes, Brit. Mus.), he became rector of Burton, Sussex. The duties of this post were no more than those of private chaplain to Sir William Goring, whose residence, Burton Place, was the only dwelling-house in the parish. There Elderfield took up his quarters and devoted himself to study. Naturally reserved, he took full advantage of his position and lived in the completest retirement. In 1650 he published 'The Civill Right of Tythes,' Lond. sm. 4to, a learned treatise, displaying much research in both law and theology. The great pains he took with a second book was believed to have cost him his life. This was 'Of Regeneration and Baptism, Hebrew and Christian,' Lond. 1653, 4to, published after his death by his executors. He died 2 Dec. 1652 at Burton Place. In his will he directed that he should be buried in the chancel of his church, but this privilege was refused by Sir William Goring, because, as was alleged, he was disappointed of the legacy he expected to receive, and the body was laid in the nave. Elderfield had left the bulk of his property, amounting to 350l., to his native parish of Harwell; 284l. was expended in the purchase of land in South Moreton, and by a decree in chancery the remaining 66l. was handed to the churchwardens of the neighbouring village of Hagbourne for charitable purposes. He also left 36l. for the benefit of ejected ministers, and he bequeathed to the university of Oxford his manuscript of 'Lyra on the Psalms,' 'Rodolphus, his Postills,' and a copy of 'Clemens Romanus,' bound up with a 'Tract on Purgatory.' Elderfield was described by Richard Baxter (Nonconformist's Plea for Peace, pt. i. p. 205) as 'a very learned and great conformist.'
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 336.]
ELDERTON, WILLIAM (d. 1592?), ballad-writer, was a notorious tippler and a ready writer of ballads. In an account of the expenses of the Lord of Misrule at a Twelfth-day entertainment given at court, 1552-3 (Loseley Manuscripts, p. 47), it is recorded that one of the boy-actors was named Elderton, who may have been William Elderton. The earliest(dated) ballad of Elderton is 'The Panges of Loue and louers fttes' (sic), 1559, s. sh. fol., of which a copy (formerly belonging to Heber) is now in the Britwell collection. It is signed 'Finis qd W. E.' At the foot of some ballads the name is found in full, 'Finis, W. Elderton.' Drayton, in his epistle to Henry Reynolds, writes—
I scornd your ballet then, though it were done
And had for Finis William Elderton.
A lost book, entitled 'Eldertons Jestes with his mery Toyes,' was licensed for publication in 1561-2 (Arber, Transcript, i. 179). It provoked 'An Admonition to Elderton to leave the toyes by him begone,' which was followed by 'Eldertons answere for his mery toyes.' Both the 'Admonition' and the 'Answer' have perished. Among Elderton's extant ballads are 'The true fourme and shape of a monsterous chyld which was borne at Stony Stratforde... 1565' (Huth Library and Britwell), s. sh. fol.; 'An Epytaphe upon the Death of the Right Reverent and learned Father in God, I. Iuell,' 1571, s. sh. fol. (Britwell and Roxb. Coll.); 'A ballat intituled Northomberland Newes,' &c., n. d. (licensed 1569), s. sh. fol. (Soc. of Antiq.); 'A new Yorkshyre song,' &c., 1584, s. sh. fol. (Roxb. Coll.), dated from York, describing a match at archery, in twenty-two six-line stanzas. Some verses of Elderton are printed before Hollybande's 'Arnalt and Lucenda,' 1575. Stow in his 'Survey,' 1598, p. 217 (chapter on 'Cheape Warde'), quotes some verses 'on the images over the Guildhall Gate,' composed 'about thirty yeares since by William Elderton, at that time an Atturney in the Sheriifes Courtes there.' Afterwards Elderton was master of a company of comedians, and on 10 Jan. 1573-4 he received 6l. 13s. 4d. for a play presented before the queen. From 'A true reporte of the death and martyrdome of M. Campion,' 1581, it appears that he published some 'scurile balates' on Campion's execution. Elderton died in or before 1592. In that year Gabriel Harvey published his 'Foure Letters,' in which he describes Elderton and Robert Greene as 'two notorious mates and the very ringleaders of the riming and scribbling crew' (Harvey, Works, ed. Grosart, i. 164. He speaks in the same tract of 'Elderton's ale-crammed nose.' Nashe, in 'Foure Letters Confuted,' 1593, upbraids Harvey for 'plucking Elderton out of the ashes of his ale,' and says that there had been a 'monstrous emulation' between Elderton and Harvey. There are two jocular epitaphs on Elderton in Camden's 'Remaines,' 1605, p. 56. Some of his ballads were re-printed by Collier for the Percy Society ('Old Ballads from Early Printed Copies') in 1840; others are included in 'Ancient Ballads and Broadsides'(Philobiblon Society), 1867. The opening lines of a ballad by Elderton are quoted in 'Much Ado about Nothing,' v. 2.
