Elton was born in London, in the parish of Lambeth, in August 1794, and was trained for the law in the office of a solicitor named Springhall in Verulam Buildings, Gray's Inn.
[1] After joining a strolling company, he appeared, in 1823, as utility actor at the Olympic, playing in A Fish out of Water, where he made the acquaintance of Tyrone Power.
At Christmas he went to the Liverpool Amphitheatre, where the following year, after a summer engagement at Birmingham, under Alfred Bunn, he played Napoleon in the spectacle of the Battle of Waterloo.
He then returned to the minor theatres, was in the spring of 1836 at the Adelphi, and 10 January 1837 at Covent Garden, under Osbaldiston's management, made a success as the eponymous Walter Tyrrell.
[2] On the production, 26 June 1837, at the Haymarket of The Bridal adapted by Sheridan Knowles from the Maid's Tragedy of Beaumont and Fletcher, he gained much credit as Amintor.