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Notices of the Ellises.

BY WILLIAM SMITH ELLIS, ESQ.,

OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE.

Address.

THE present number, it is hoped, will not disappoint the expectations of the readers of No. II.; probably, by comparison, exceed them, as containing 'Notices,' topographically speaking, more general; more numerous, though more unconnected; and more modern, and therefore more recognizable by the Ellises of the present day, insomuch that perhaps few of them will not find mention of some relative, near or remcte. The present number, like the two preceding ones, is the result of much labour and research, in which the author has had little aid, for reasons hereafter given; but he trusts the contents of this number will excite an interest that will result in more extended co-operation.*

The list of those to whom a copy of No. II. was sent, comprising nearly two hundred names,† if classified into those who

Some correspondents have expressed surprise to find no account of their families in the 'Notices.' They may be reminded that a systematic and complete account of the Ellises is not attempted to be given; nor would any genealogist attempt this of any Family or numbers of Families of one name, except of some particular locality or period. The author commenced his labours by collecting what printed and accessible MS. sources furnished, which joined to some specific and some incidental researches, and private communications, constituted a collection which he thought useful to be put in print, and would be considered of interest (as he has found). Such being the case, and whilst he can collect and shall be supplied with new 'Notices,' he hopes, from time to time, to continue his work; but he does not pretend to accomplish the Herculean labour of examining 15,000 parish registers and several thousands of wills, which it would be necessary to do before a complete account of the Ellises of all ranks for the last 300 years, could be compiled.

+ This is the estimated number of the gentry of the name of Ellis in the United Kingdom, as far as can be ascertained from calendars and directories. These, however, are often very incorrect, ambiguous in their information, and deficient, and

No. 3.]

[Not Published.]

[MARCH, 1864.

66

have sent communications or acknowledgements, and those who have not, would form a striking commentary on the circumstances attendant on Sir Wm. Dugdale's Visitation of Yorkshire in 1665. It is stated in the published copy of this proceeding, by the Surtees Society, which gives a catalogue of those families who did not register their pedigrees, as well as of those who did, that "nearly one-third of the whole number of gentry whom Sir Wm. Dugdale called upon to appear before him with proofs of their arms and pedigrees, treated his summons with neglect." It is well known that the Heralds' Visitations generally, did not contain pedigrees of all the families of gentry living at the time; and this for various reasons, as indifference, absence or minority of the head of the family, obscure ancestry, inability to trace alleged descent, and to prove the hereditary right to coat-armour, to which may be added the pecuniary one, that fees were payable on record of the pedigree. But Dugdale politely excuses the defaulters on one ground only. Many," he says, "not sensible of the honour of their families I find amiss, yet hope (upon their better thought) they will do right to posterity and give their attendance." The author of these Notices,' who issues his work gratuitously, and charges no fees, would beg to address Dugdale's request to those who are not comprehended in the exceptional thirty or forty who have acknowledged the receipt of No. II. or sent information, a request that many others, who he knows feel an equal interest in the subject, will undoubtedly echo. The intimation at p. 108 that pedigrees not extending beyond the present century were not requisite, has very probably prevented most persons from sending any notice of their families. This restriction, it will be seen, the author has been induced to abandon, and to make these pages a Record of the Ellises of the present day, and of the recent as well as of the remote past; in fact, as regards Families of One Name, to produce a Genealogical Visitation. The Visitations made two centuries since, rarely contained pedigrees of more than three descents, whilst those of the time of Queen Elizabeth carried back, in many cases, the family antiquity as many centuries; in the latter case the pedigrees were framed from the deeds and local memorials of the family recorded, thus shown to have been resident during the whole period on the ancestral seat; whilst in the former case,

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for some few counties not published. Many persons classed amongst the 'gentry' in the provincial directories, from their social status, are not conventionally considered to occupy that rank, whilst many others placed under the heading "Commercial" justly are. A list, therefore, of the existing gentry of the name is impracticable. The Clergy List, Army and Navy List, Law Calendar, etc., furnish a complete catalogue of a definite class; this is not given here, as it is in print and accessible, and would occupy, space to the exclusion of information not elsewhere met with in a collected form.

new owners had arisen, who, for want of evidence of ancient descent, were unable to trace their pedigree beyond their personal or traditional knowledge of their forefathers. And such limited knowledge is eminently characteristic of the present day. Of the gentry of the nineteenth century, few live where their grandfathers or even fathers dwelt; very few comparatively are owners of long-inherited real estate; the various professions absorb the great majority, and disperse them throughout the kingdom and the empire; the remembrance of the descent from even an ancient family in a few generations becomes traditionally dim, and eventually dies out; the knowledge of evidences of such descent ceases to be handed down from father to son, and is ultimately lost, so that most families thus far removed from their original habitat know little more of their origin and ancestry than what is derived from personal acquaintance. This rarely goes beyond the grandfather, often not so far, and the name and circumstances of a remoter ancestor are known only to some members of the family whose unwonted genealogical curiosity has elicited, and whose family pride perchance has preserved a neglected memorial, or an expiring tradition.

Yet the present number of this work shows, in many cases, that pedigrees of only three descents, especially when accompanied with arms, reciprocally elucidate each other, by indicating a common ancestor, and thereby furnishing another generation, or perhaps a date, a locality, or some clue to further inquiry, and to probable affiliation on some ancient stock. And such even limited statements are invited from those who have hitherto furnished none, as serving the purpose, if not of immediate elucidation, yet of being placed on permanent record and for future utility.

The obscurity of a family a century or half a century ago is no presumption against "gentle descent." The fortunes of families are proverbially fluctuating; the scions of the younger sons of ancient families entered the yeomanry and trading classes, whose descendants, many of them, constitute the gentry of the present day. These Notices of the Ellises' show that in most parts of England, but especially in Yorkshire and Kent, there existed for centuries gentle families of the name, who in each generation produced offshoots, whose representatives doubtless number thousands at the present time. Evidence, it is believed, has been given to show that most of these families are of one, and that a very ancient lineage, and bearing ancient and timehonoured coat-armour. Even those families not of this Norman race, as the Welsh, have, it is seen in many cases, great antiquity to boast of, and have become wide-spread and numerous; whilst many Ellises belonging to neither of these

classes may be reasonably presumed to be sprung from some scion of a considerable family who at an early period took the paternal christian name of Elias for a patronymic.

These general observations may fitly close with an admonition to the inexperienced in genealogical investigation. By such the most hasty inferences are frequently drawn of family descent and connection: with them it is enough to constitute relationship that persons of the same name should be found living in the same parish or even county, contemporaneously or not. Many instances are given in these pages to the contrary; and it is never safe to presume the affirmative, unless warranted by the same unusual christian name, circumstances, or general probability.

Notices of Eyles, Fles, etc.

It is scarcely doubtful that these names are variations of Alis and Elys. William Eylys, of Felpham, near Chichester, by his will, d. 27 Dec. 1524, and pr. 31 Dec., desires his body to be buried in the church, mentions his wife, Johanna, and gives 20 nobles to each of his four children. William Alys (probably son of the foregoing), of Felpham, made his will 16 Feb. 1535, which is noticed in Sussex Archæological Collections' (xii. 89); as also the will of Richard Browne, of Eastergate, in West Sussex, dated 3 July, 1534, who therein mentions his son-in-law, John Eyles.

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The following are the two earliest notices of the name hitherto met with: (Add. Ch. Brit. Mus. 51 A 16) 21 Edw. III., a deed of Johanna, widow of Henry Gundeville, to John Eyles, of North Bedhampton [co. Hants], and Johanna, his d., of land in Winketon; (Add. Ch. B. Mus. 80 H 17) 3 Hen. IV., a deed of Nicholas Upchurch and another, to William Eyles and Henry Cook, of land in Chartham [co. Kent].

Collins, in his Baronetage' (ed. 1741), says of the now extinct baronetical family of Eyles, that it "had been a long time seated in Wilts." The first recorded is - Eyles, Esq., who

left two sons, John and Francis. John, the eldest, received the honour of knighthood from James II., in the last year of whose reign he was Lord Mayor of London. Francis, the second son, was an eminent merchant, and created a Baronet Dec. 1, 1714. His grandson, Sir Francis Haskin Eyles, took the surname of STYLES; his son, Sir John, ob. s. p. 1 Nov., 1768, when the title became extinct. A full account of this

family may be found in Collins and in 'Burke's Extinct Baronetage.' The arms borne by them were, argent a fess engrailed sable, in chief 3 fleurs-de-lis of the second. John Iles,

who paid church rates for the parish of Steeple Ashton, co. Wilts, in 1558, was doubtless of this family.

The above arms were borne by the family of ISLES or ILES, of Leeds, in Yorkshire. Thomas Isles, of London, gent., Procurator of the Court of Arches, living 1616, was born there; he had issue Rev. Thomas Isles, and Sarah (his 2d d.), who was mar. at Brentford, May 28, 1612, to Thomas Godfrey, Esq., of Kent, who had issue int. al. the unfortunate Sir Edmund Berrie Godfrey (Topographer and Genealogist,' ii. 450). The father of Francis Iles, Esq., of Barnoldby le Beck, co. Linc., was born at Leeds, as were his grandfather (who mar. - Hodgson, of Bradford) and his great-grandfather (who mar. — Mortimer). Several members of the family are interred in Chapel Town, Leeds, and others in Tadcaster Church and Knaresborough Church. Mr. Iles's eldest son, Francis Walwyn Iles, Esq., mar. 15 April, 1857, at Waltham, co. Linc., Frances Jane, only d. of Rev. Tho. Basnett, Rector of Waltham. Edmund Iles, Esq., of Dublin, is a near relative.

It was probably a branch of the Wiltshire stem which flourished in Gloucestershire in the seventeenth century. In Hampton Church, in that county, is a memorial for John Iles, of Chalford, Esq., many years in the Commission of the Peace, with the arms of Iles, ut ante. And there are memorials at Gloucester, Cirencester, and East Leech-Turville, for members of the family.

Notices of Alison, Ellison, etc.

Investigation dissipates the feasible conjecture of the derivation of the name and family of Alison from Sir Archibald Alis. Sir Archibald Alison, writing of his family, says that an ancestor of his, about two hundred years ago, settled in the county of Angus, and mar. Ann Ogilvie, the heiress of Newall, which estate remained in his family till his father's birth, and was sold by his elder brother. The parish in which the family were interred, was Mathil, near Crieff, and an adjoining one. The arms borne now by Sir Archibald are different from those, it appears, borne originally, viz. azure three fleurs-de-lis or, according to an old seal, long in the family, which were allowed by the Scotch heralds to the Rev. Archibald Alison, on his marriage, in 1778, and which are given to the name of Alison in a work on Scotch heraldry. The above-mentioned coat (being the royal arms of France, without any difference of charge or tincture), is evidently an erroneous and curtailed copy, by the engraver, of the arms of Allanson, which are the same, with the addition of a bordure gules, being the identical bearings of

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