William Elderton (ballad writer)

[1] His son, also named William, was christened on 16 January 1548 as recorded in the parish register of St. Peter's upon Cornhill, London.

Michael Drayton, in his epistle to Henry Reynolds, writes — I scornd your ballet then, though it were done And had for Finis William Elderton.

John Stow in his 'Survey,' (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.'

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'.

John Ward, in Journal of the American Musicological Society, 1957, X, p. 164 gives more detail of this song "The God of Love", as sung by Benedick in Much Ado about Nothing.