author
Charles Isaac Elton
1839–1900
A Victorian lawyer, antiquary, and politician, he wrote with unusual range about old laws, customs, and the deep roots of English history. His books helped bring scholarly subjects like land tenure, folklore, and early Britain to a wider reading public.
1 Audiobook
The Great Book-Collectors
by Charles Isaac Elton, Mary Augusta Elton
About the author
Born in Southampton on December 6, 1839, Charles Isaac Elton was educated at Cheltenham College and Balliol College, Oxford. He became a fellow of Queen's College, was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1865, and later built a reputation as both a legal scholar and a serious student of the past.
Elton wrote across law, history, and antiquarian subjects, a mix that gives his work a distinctive flavor. Among his best-known books are The Great Book-Collectors (written with his wife, Mary Augusta Elton), Origins of English History, The Law of Copyholds, and studies of commons, waste lands, and customary law. His writing often tried to connect everyday institutions and traditions with their older historical origins.
He also served in public life as a Member of Parliament and was made Queen's Counsel. Remembered today less as a politician than as a learned interpreter of early English society, he remains an interesting figure for readers drawn to the borderlands between law, history, and folklore.