Elsynge, Henry, 1598-1654

Henry Elsynge, clerk of the House of Commons, was born at Battersea and educated at Westminster. He received his B.A. from Oxford in 1625. Elsynge then spent seven years in foreign travel after which Archbishop Laud secured him an appointment as clerk of the House of Commons. He resigned several years later to avoid participating in the proceedings against Charles I. Elsynge was an excellent scholar fluent in French, Italian and Latin. His work as clerk was especially valuable during the Long Parliament. His writings include of the form and manner of holding a Parliament in England (1663), and a tract concerning proceedings in Parliament. Ther former text is derived from a similar text written by his father.

From the description of Modus tenendi Parlimentum apud Anglos in Two Bookes: manuscripts, [between 1630 and 1640]. (Temple University Libraries). WorldCat record id: 122365284

Henry Elsynge [Elsyng] (bap. 1606, d. 1656) was clerk of the House of Commons. After a stint as his father's assistant in the House of Lords, he obtained the office of clerk of the House of Commons in 1639. He officiated at the Short Parliament which met in 1640, and then for the first eight years of the Long Parliament, remaining at Westminster after the final break between the king and parliament in 1642. Elsynge resigned his office in 1648, claiming poor health, but in reality not wishing to take part in the proceedings against the king. He retired to Hounslow in Middlesex where he died in 1656. The various parts of the treatise entitled The Manner of Holding Parliaments in England, or, Modus tenendi parliamentum apud Anglos, sometimes attributed to Elsynge, were in fact the work of his father.

From the description of Modus tenendi Parliamentum apud Anglos, [ca. 1625]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 702177306