Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Beckingham, Elias de
BECKINGHAM, ELIAS de (d. 1305?), judge, was placed on the commission of justices for Middlesex in 1274, but immediately removed. At this time he seems to have held the rank of king's serjeant. He received the commission of justice of assize [for a brief account of the nature and origin of which see under Batesford, John de] in 1276. In 1282-3 he acted as keeper of the rolls of the common pleas, and in 1285 was appointed one of the justices of that bench. In 1289, grave complaints of the maladministration of justice and the venality of the judges being rife, a searching inquiry was instituted, and Beckingham was the only one of the five justices of the common pleas who was not dismissed for corruption. He appears to have continued in the discharge of his duties until 1305, for he was regularly summoned to parliament as a justice between 1288 and 1305. From the fact that he was no longer summoned to parliament after the latter date, it may be inferred that he died or retired before the date when parliament next met. He was interred in the church of Bottisham, in Cambridgeshire, where a monument
was dedicated to his memory. [Dugdale's Chron. Series, 25, 26, 28, 29; Madox's History of the Exch. ii. 7; Rot. Parl, i. 84; Wikes's Chronicon, ed. Gale, 118-121; Holinshed, ii. 491; Parl. Writs, ii. (Index); Orig. Jurid. 44; Lysons's Britannia, ii. part i. 91.]