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Alan were then minors, and in ward. Robert Camerarius is mentioned along with William de la Mara, in the Pipe Roll, 1131, as vassals of Stephen Earl of Brittany, in Yorkshire. Robert, the Chamberlain of Conan, Earl of Brittany (who succeeded to the title in 1165), founded Denny Abbey, in Cambridgeshire, of which he became a monk. Conan confirms the foundation charter of Robert, and his confirmation is witnessed by Ralph Camerarius, Nigellus filius Camerarii, Henry de Camera, and John de Camera, doubtless the sons of Robert, Ralph apparently succeeding his father in his office, his brothers inheriting the name.1 This Robert was not improbably cousin of William de Mara, and son of the first Robert de Venuz (or Punchardon, as we shall see hereafter), another son, being, there is little doubt, "Elias, the son of Robert" (witness, along with William de Mara, to a charter of John, son of Gilbert Marshal). This Elias might have been father of the four Fitz-Ellises in question. Robert's children they could hardly be, for they had different Christian and surnames, though subsequently the name of Fitz-Ellis seems to have been borne, as well as de Camera, by families so styled, of Newton-in-the-Willows, who were undoubtedly his descendants.2 Marrigg Abbey, co. York, was founded by Roger de Aske, temp. Henry II. The De Cameras, for several generations, are met with as witnesses to charters of donors to this establishment, and they also occur in the Testa de Nevill for Lincolnshire. There is a charter, without date (apparently temp. King John), of Robert Fitz-Ellis, junior, of Newton. Robert Fitz-Ellis, of Newton, is a witness to a charter of Elias, son of Philip de Mortun, about the beginning of Henry III. And about this time occurs Elias, the son of Robert de Camera de Newton, and Ada his wife. In the Roll of Arms, temp. Edward III. (Coll. Top. et Gen. ii. 320), Robert Fitz-Ellis, of Newton, is stated to bear Argent, a chief azure dancetté. Argent, on a chief indented gules, a lion passant or, are given as the arms of Chamber (in the dictionaries), and ermine on a chief indented azure, three cronells (perhaps fleurs de lis) or, as the coat of Chamberlain : the former closely resembles a coat of Ribald of Middleham, and of Middleham (descendants of the Earls of Brittany), viz., or, on a chief, indented azure, a lion passant or. A heiress of one of this family, there is therefore little doubt, married a Fitz-Ellis, of Newton; and the canton ermine, in the coat of Fitz-Ellis,

1 Dugdale's Monast. vi. 1552.

2 In Berry's Ordinary of Arms, per pale sable and azure, three fleurs de lis or, are assigned to the name of Newton, which name was sometimes assumed by these Fitz-Ellises. See, in the Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, vol. v. p. 114, many abstracts of their charters, from the Cartulary of Marrigg Abbey, co. York.

was doubtless acquired by a match with some descendant of these earls, and was the "difference" borne by Conan and Alan Fitz-Ellis, descended from such match. Parenthetical reference has been made to the identity of Venuz and Punchardun (discussed hereafter): it must not be here forgotten that Roger de Punchardun and his wife gave lands in Fletham (of which Robert the Chamberlain was lord) to Marrigg Abbey, before the time of Edward III.

A Gerard Fitz-Elyas and Ralph Fitz-Elyas occur in Devonshire, in 1166, as mesne tenants in that county; but nothing further is known of them to determine whether Elyas were their father's Christian or surname, though it is probably the latter.

Henry, at an early period, seems to have been a favourite name with the Fitz-Ellises and Ellises. In the Chartulary of the Priory of Christ Church, co. Hants, there is a charter, dated 15 Edward III., of "Henricus filius Elyæ dictus Wyrle, filius et hæres Henrici Fitz-Elys." An ancient coat of the Wyrleys, of Staffordshire, is six fleurs de lis. Hugh, William, Walter, Gilbert, and John, were the principal Christian names of the knightly family of Redisham, of Suffolk. The manor of Little Redisham, in that county, belonged to that family, and contained the three lordships of Strattons, Elyses, and Redisham Hall. They bore six fleurs de lis for their arms, and were probably originally a branch of the Alises, of Hants, Walter de Halis conveying, in 1339 (probably as trustee), the manor of Redisham Parva to Edmund de Redisham and Alice his wife.3

A striking coincidence, favourable to the hypothesis now under consideration, presents itself in the frequent occurrence, at an early period, of the Christian name of Elias, in offshoots of families who bore one or more fleurs de lis as part of their armorial bearings. In some of these cases there was, doubtless, a direct male descent from an Ellis; in the others, probably a descent from a heiress of the name.1

1 Henry de la Mare was the presumed son of William Alis, and Henry de Kilpec his presumed grandson.

2 Suckling's Suffolk.

3 Add. MSS. Brit. Mus. 19,112, p.

Elias de Constantine occurs in 1166, in the Liber Niger Scaccarii, as mesne tenant in Shropshire: this family bore leopards' heads and fleurs de lis.

Elias de Somery occurs in the same record, as mesne tenant, in Essex. To this family is given a coat-fretty, on a canton, a fleur de lis; and in Shaw's Staffordshire (ii. 139), another, viz., two lions passant, in their mouths a fleur de lis.

Elias de Morton, temp. Henry III.-arms: six fleurs de lis.-(Hasted's Kent, xi. 152.)

Elias de Swale (Testa de Nevill, temp. Henry III., Yorkshire,)-arms :

We must here notice the tradition that the Ellises of Kiddall in Berwick-in-Elmete, near Leeds in Yorkshire, and therefore all the Ellises who bore the same arms and crest (viz., or, on a cross sable, five crescents argent-the crest being a female proper, her hair dishevelled or), originally assumed by Sir Archibald Ellys, a Crusader under Richard I., were descended from an ancestor (it is presumed, William Alis) who came in with William the Conqueror, and received from him large grants of land in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. The most striking and interesting fact, in confirmation of this tradition, is certainly this :that the ancestors of the Alisons bore originally three fleurs de lis for their arms, the name of Archibald existing in the family from time immemorial. This was ascertained by the Rev. Archibald Alison, father of the present distinguished historian, Sir Archibald Alison, Bart. And in the heraldic dictionaries the following is given as a coat of Alison, viz., party per bend gules and or, a fleur de lis counterchanged.

It is remarkable that those families (that is, a succession of generations) of the name of Ellis who were most distinguished for the last five hundred years, and of whom therefore the most information exists in the shape of compiled pedigrees, are those of whom there is no direct evidence that they or their ancestors ever bore fleurs de lis, viz., the Yorkshire and Kentish Ellises of a common stock, and the Lincolnshire Ellises, though probably of the same origin, yet bearing different arms. But there are, notwithstanding, so many detached circumstances and facts respecting synonymous and evidently kindred families, and allied families of other names, that, assembled and compared, amount to an accumulation of presumptive evidence as comes little azure, a bend nebuly argent, in the sinister chief a canton, charged with a fleur de lis.

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Elias de Hinton, in 1166 (Liber Niger), held four knights' fees, as mesne tenant in Essex. The arms of this family were composed of fleurs de lis, and one of their crests contained a snake, or adder, or eel. 'Hinton," in Oxfordshire (which probably gave name to this family), was held, at the Domesday Survey, by "William" (Alis ?), of Milo Crispin.

Elias de Marcy, or Massy, held half a knight's fee of Robert Marmion, in Warwickshire, 1166 (Liber Niger). The Massys of Podington, co. Cheshire, bore quarterly, in the first and fourth quarters three fleurs de lis. -Ormerod's Cheshire.

Elias de Aubeney, or Albini, 1166 (Liber Niger), and another, a baron of the realm, 1305. One coat assigned to Daubeney is, gules a fess fusilly, each fusil charged with a fleur de lis sable, in chief three martlets or.

Elias de Thorp held (1166) a quarter of a knight's fee in Yorkshire (Liber Niger). Argent, a fesse between six (and three) fleurs de lis gules, is one of the coats of Thorp.

The families of Croc, Broc, Buron, Shillingheld, Erdington, Marshal, Lenham, &c., in which the name of Elias occurs, are mentioned in the text.

short of demonstration, and tend to establish the principal points in question, viz., the descent of most of the Ellises from the William Alis of Domesday, and that fleurs de lis were his armorial bearings.

We find then fleurs de lis borne by the following families of synonymous name with Ellis, though unfortunately, from their obscurity at the time of the heraldic visitations, no pedigrees occur of them, and otherwise, at any period, few notices are to be met with:

ILES (Yorkshire).-Argent, a fess engrailed sable, in chief three fleurs de lis of the last.

ILEY.-Argent, a fess engrailed between six fleurs de lis sable.

OLLEY (London and Norfolk).—Gules on a fess embattled argent, two fleurs de lis sable.

ELY.-Argent, a fess engrailed between six fleurs de lis gules.

EYLES.-Argent, a fess engrailed sable, in chief three fleurs de lis of the last.

EYLES.-Argent, a chevron engrailed sable, in chief three fleurs de lis of the last.

HILL and HILLES (Kent).-Azure, a chevron between three fleurs de lis argent.

HULLES.-Azure, a chevron between three fleurs de lis or.

That the Ellises of Kiddall and Kent, bearing the same arms and crest, and adopting in common, as favourite Christian names, William, John, and Thomas, were of common origin, there can be no reasonable doubt;1 in the latter county the visitation

1 In the Testa de Nevill, p. 216, we meet with a Simon Kidel, at Rochester. The Kiddalls of Lincolnshire, of whom a pedigree, containing twelve descents, was entered at the visitations of that county, 1564-92, doubtless took their name from Kiddall, the seat of the Ellises, who probably obtained it by marriage, which a frequent crest of the Ellises, a goat's head, would seem to indicate, this being the crest of the Kiddalls. The Ferbies of Kent settled there temp. Edward II., and, bearing a fess between three goats' heads erased, were probably descended from Adam de Kiddall of Fereby, co. Lincoln, son of Thomas, the first in the pedigree.

The goat's head erased is also the crest of the ancient family of Morton (formerly Marton, of Marton in Yorkshire), and is the charge in the first and fourth quarters of their quarterly shield. Genealogical circumstances indicate a common descent of this family with the Kiddalls and Ellises. In the Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica are abstracts of several of their deeds, many of whose witnesses bear the Christian name of Elias. The first of the family is Sir Simon de Marton, living about the time of King John. There was also a William de Marton, of Lincolnshire, living earlier, viz., 23 Henry II. (Madox's Exch.). At an early period we have Elias, son of Philip de Marton, probably the Elias Morton, of Kent, mentioned by Hasted, as bearing six fleurs de lis. Now, in 18 Henry II., we find a Symon Fitz-Elias, who fines for the lands of Osbert Martel, in Essex and Herts. (Madox's Exch.) It will be remembered, there was a Philip Alis, mentioned in the Liber Niger, 1166. Do not then all these circum

carries them back to the time of Richard II., when William Ellis, at the head of the pedigree, was attorney-general to that monarch; but there is ample evidence, that at the time of Edward I. they occupied the rank of gentry, and had considerable landed property in the county; therefore they bore arms, and, at that early period, their own, and not by assumption the arms of another family. Now, the visitations of Yorkshire do not carry the Ellises of Kiddall farther back than the end of the fourteenth century, though there is other evidence that they were settled at Kiddall more than a century before, if not at the time of King John. Still there seems no reason to suppose the Kentish Ellises an offshoot of the Yorkshire family, but that both branched off from the Alises of Allington in Hampshire, about the time of King John, the evidences for which, as regards the Kentish Ellises, are very circumstantial.

Temp. King John, Walkelin filius Engerand impleads Geoffrey Fitz-Elis for half an hide of land in Froille, co. Hants, where the latter says he has several farms. Elias de Froille occurs in the same rolls. The arms of Froyle are three lions' gambs. The name of Geoffry Fitz-Elis occurs also, at the same time, in Kent. The family of Newdigate, of Newdigate, co. Surrey, bore three lions' gambs also, and for a crest a fleur de lis. The Earls of Warren were lords paramount of both Newdigate and Froille. The first of the Newdigates in the pedigree is John de N., who lived 14th King John, and the foregoing circumstances render it probable that he and the Froilles were a branch of the Fitz-Ellises who bore lions' gambs in substitution of fleurs de lis. Argent, a fess sable between three lions' gambs erased bendways within a bordure gules, were the arms of Erdington. Elias de Erdinton occurs temp. King John, in Surrey; Ertingdon, or Arthington, is a subinfeudation of the manor of

stances point to a common origin? The family of Kyme was a Lincolnshire one, and at an early period the names of Simon and Philip were its prevalent Christian names: their arms were a chevron. Might not then a son of the William Alis of Domesday have married a lady of this family, and thus have introduced the names of Simon and Philip above mentioned, and have furnished the chevron in the arms of Hilles and Aynscomb of Kent? These two families, that is, Helles and Swanscomb, the Kiddalls, Prestwicks (originally Ellis), and perhaps the Martons, at an early period, had an Adam, which name seems to have come from one source, perhaps the Kymes. There was besides, in 1166, an Adam de Froyle, which family we have seen must have been originally Ellis.

1 A "William Elyas," of Yorkshire, is mentioned in the Pipe Rolls of that period.

2 Rot. Curiæ Regis, p. 362.

3 Page 91.

• Rotuli Cancellari, 3 John, p. 221.

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