Crossword Genius

In court in English city, not having succeeded (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

elected

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'in' is the definition.
(voted in)

'court in english city not having succeeded' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'court' could be 'ct' (abbreviation used in road names) and 'ct' is located in the answer.
'english' could be 'e' (abbreviation) and 'e' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'leed' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for elected that I've seen before include "In a position" , "Voted into office" , "Chosen by ballot" , "Chose by poll" , "Appointed" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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