Godalming, and was granted by Henry II. to Ralph de Broc, whose family bore fleurs de lis, and were connected with the Ellises. Elias de Shillingheld held half a knight's fee in Kent, 1166: it is highly probable that Chippingdale is a corruption of this word; this family bore for their arms, semée of fleurs de lis and two lions' paws, their crest being a lion's paw holding a fleur de lis.1 Again, the family of Austin of Kent, bore a chevron between three lions' gambs: in a Subsidy Roll for Kent, temp. Edward III., occurs Elias Austyn of Dartford. It is difficult, from analogous cases, not to believe in a close connection between these arms and families. And a combination of the lion's paw and fleur de lis is met with in the crest of Thomas Iles, interred in St. Faith's Church, London, whose arms and crest are depicted on his monument, viz., Argent, a fess engrailed, and in chief three fleurs de lis sable, the crest being a lion's gamb fessways argent, holding a fleur de lis sable. It is not improbable that the family of this Thomas Iles was early settled in Kent, as the same arms are borne by Eyles, which family, in one of its branches, bore a chevron engrailed instead of a fess. Similar arms, viz., Gules a chevron engrailed ermine, on a chief argent three fleurs de lis sable, quartered with azure, three snakes or fishes wavy fessways in pale argent, are the arms of Keyser of Hollingbourne in Kent, and are quartered by Challenor of Sussex. And they were formerly on a brass monument in that church. (Hasted's Kent, 8vo. ed. v. 475.) Eales, or Ellis, of Wilts, bear three eels or snakes. Richard Duket held, temp. Henry III., a knight's fee at Eltham, of the honour of Gloucester. This family (whose name is a corruption of De Haket) bore eels or snakes, and also fleurs de lis, for their arms. The manor of Bradsole, in Polton, co. Kent, was owned by Walter Haket, temp. Richard I. (Hasted's Kent, ix. 447); and Kirkby Court, in Horton-Kirkby, was sold by Sir Cuthbert Hacket, Lord Mayor of London, 1626, who bore three fleurs de lis between two bendlets, and was grandson of Thomas Hacket, of Dartford. (Ibid. ii. 499.) The arms of Keyser were probably those of Duket, or Haket, and acquired with property by Keyser; and if the Hakets were not a branch of the Alises, they were

5

1 Pedigree in Nichols' Leicestershire, iii. p. 278.

2 The family of See, or Att-Sea, of Herne, in Kent, bore these arms, with the same colours.

3 Harl. MSS. 1597, p. 9.

4 Berry's Sussex Genealogies, p. 73.

5 Sir John Eyles, Lord Mayor of London, of an ancient Wiltshire family, was knighted by King James II.; his brother, Francis, was created a baronet. Their arms were, Argent, a fess engrailed sable, in chief three fleurs de lis of the last.-Burke's Extinct Baronetage.

6 Testa de Nevill, p. 206.

3

probably descended from them through a female. Not very far from Eltham, viz., at Darent, a manor, called St. MargaretHells, was owned by a family called Hells, who had much land besides at Dartford and Ash, near Sandwich. One of these, Thomas de Helles, had a charter of freewarren for his lands here, 17 Edward I. One of his descendants, Richard Hills-for so the name was spelt temp. Henry VIII.-owned this manor.2 Bertram de Hilles, of this family, was lieutenant of Dover Castle temp. Henry III. His descendant, Gilbert de Helles, sheriff of Kent, 30 Edward III., bore sable a bend argent. Now, we have seen that Hill, or Hilles, of Kent, bore a chevron between three fleurs de lis, and to the name of Hills are assigned a coat resembling Ellis, of Kennington, in Kent, viz., a cross between four crescents and a chief. In the fifteenth century, Gregory occurs among the Christian names of the Hellys', or Ellises, of Horsmonden, in Kent. This name was prevalent in the family of Aynscomb, of Kent and Sussex, who bore a chevron between three fleurs de lis, and whose name is no doubt the same as Swanscomb, in Kent; and in the year 1166 there was a landowner in that county," who appears to have taken his name from that place, viz., Robert de Swanscomb. In 1433, John Hellis, of Darent, is returned as one of the gentry of the county; and in 25th Car. II., John Ellis, of the same place, pays to the hearth

1 In Burke's Armory it is stated, that the Hacketts of Ireland are derived from Sir Paganus de Hackett (descended from one of the Conqueror's barons), who accompanied Henry II. into that country. The arms of Ducat, or Duckett, of Scotland, as there given, are Argent, three serpents gliding fessways in pale azure. It would seem that an eel or snake, from its allusive character, was adopted by the Ellises, at an early period, for a crest, and afterwards for arms. It is found as a crest by the De la Mares of Oxon; by the Hintons (presumed descendants of Sir William Alis); by the Buckners (probably named from Bucknall in Bucks, belonging to the Damorys); and by the Denises of Kent and Gloucestershire, who bore fleurs de lis, in the form of a hand in armour grasping a serpent, which is also the crest of the Ellises of Southside in Scotland (Nisbet's Heraldry, i. 408); and of the Right Hon. Edward Ellice, M.P. And (in Harl. MSS. 5849, p. 3) a goat's head, holding in its mouth a serpent, is the crest of the family of Ellis, bearing for arms, or, on a cross sable five crescents argent, in the first quarter a mullet pierced gules.

2 It must be remembered that in old records, even in Domesday, the article de was often used when it ought not to have been, and vice versa. The scribes were not of course acquainted with the origin and meaning of all family names; and the French de or Saxon at was always prefixed to the surname, unless there were prima facie proof that it was not a local one.

8 Hasted's Kent, ii. 273.

4 Ibid. ix. 203.

5 Liber Niger.

tax. Is it not, therefore, highly probable that these families of Hellis, Ellis, Helles, and Hills, are originally of one stock, as well as that of Aynscomb or Swanscomb; and that they sprang from an ancestor or brother of Sir Archibald Ellys, who had not, like him, gone to the Crusades, and relinquished the hereditary fleurs de lis? 1

The three following coats of arms demand a consideration that will lead to a wider field of investigation, which promises to corroborate the foregoing views, and in a very interesting way to elucidate the whole question:

HELLIS.-Sable a fess counter embattled between three leopards' faces or. HALLIS. The same, except the field gules, the fess or, and the charges argent.

ELLYS.-On a fess counter embattled argent three leopards' faces gules.

The heraldic charge, a leopard's face jessant de lis, has hitherto puzzled all writers on heraldry, as to its meaning and origin; abstract conjectures only have been indulged in, and genealogy has never yet been employed to trace its use, and ascertain the origin of the conjunction of the two charges. Such a method of investigation, however, results at least in this fact that, at at early periods, the two charges in question, sometimes in intimate union, sometimes disjoined, and sometimes each unaccompanied by the other, on the same shield, were borne by the same families and individuals, indiscriminately, and it would seem, often arbitrarily. The leopard's face jessant de lis, has never yet been suspected to have the same indication as two shields quarterly, or as two different charges on the same shield, viz., a representation of the cognizances of two families. But that such is its origin and meaning, genealogy would render extremely probable, if it cannot positively verify the supposition. Whether the use of this hybrid charge can be traced, in every case, to one single source, or may have originated as often as two families bearing these distinct charges were united in one representation, elaborate genealogical research can only determine. Research however, to a certain practicable extent, shows that the use of these charges, singly or combined, was employed by families who seem all to have had a common origin, in the male or female line, from one particular source. The details of this descent, however, will more properly be given in the second part. They will be seen to comprehend the Ellises of Normandy and their relatives; and we shall see that many English families, with such

1 To the names of Helles and Hellis are assigned sable (and gules) a bend and chief argent. This, with a fess instead of a chief, are the arms of Elwes or Helwysh, whose crest is five arrows entwined by an adder. As this does not seem to be a local name, and in early records (vide Parliamentary Writs, temp. Edward II.) is not so written, it is probably synonymous with Ellis, as the arms and crest would indicate.

united charges, are to be traced upwards to them; such investigation tending to augment the proofs sought after.

The first of these families is that of Venus, or Venour, of Hants and Wilts. The forests of Woolmer and Alsieholt, or Alisholt, were royal property, and this family were bailiffs or chief foresters thereof. William de Venuiz (or Venusia, it would seem, a barbarous Latin word for forest or hunting-ground) paid a fine to have inter alia the forestership of Alsiholt. No arms of Venour, or Venus, occur in England, containing leopards' faces or fleurs de lis; but Vanner bears gules a fess argent between three leopards' heads or; and Venois, in Normandy, bore four coats, each containing six fleurs de lis, variously placed and tinctured. Sir Adam de Gurdon, of Hants, who married Constance, daughter and heiress of John de Venus, in the thirteenth century, bore three leopards' faces jessant de lis, being, there is little doubt, the arms of his wife, the arms of his family being three boars' heads. Madox, in his History of the Exchequer, gives an account of the office of marshal of the King's Court, about which a contest arose, in the time of Henry I., between John, son of Gilbert le Marshal, and Robert de Venuz. The latter, it appears, held the manors of East Worldham in Hants, and Draycote in Wilts, by the serjeantry of performing the office of marshal. These manors, by the Domesday Survey, are said to be held by Geoffrey le Marshal. From the proximity of the period, there admits of little doubt that this Geoffrey left two daughters and coheiresses, married to Robert de Venuz and Gilbert le Marshal, which latter seems to have acquired the office indicated by his name, not however without a dispute from his co-inheritor, whose lands being held by virtue of serving the office, would entitle their holder to fill it. Henry III. confirmed the gift of the manor of Draycote to Henry de Cerne, by John de Venuz, whose descendants possessed it for several generations.5 The family of Carne of Nash, according to Burke's Landed Gentry, bore for their ancient arms three fleurs de lis; their origin, as there given, is Welsh; but it is much more likely, from

1 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. p. 198.

2 Herbert de Venatione, or de Venaison, occurs in the Rot. Oblat. Normannia, 2 John, quoted in Madox's Hist. of the Exchequer, ii. 179. This would seem to be one of the same family, and another orthography of the In the Pipe Roll for Hants, 1131, Robert de Venuiz pays for the guardianship of the daughter of Herbert the Chamberlain, whom he perhaps married to one of his sons.

name.

3 Mag. Rot. Pipa, 4 Richard I.

4 In Burke's Landed Gentry, art. "Gurdon," erroneously said to be Makarel, to an uncle of which name she was also heir.-(Vide White's Selborne.)

Hutchin's Dorsetshire, iv. 198-9.

these being their ancient arms, and other circumstances, to have been a branch of the Wiltshire family of Cerne, who, as undoubtedly a branch of the Venus, would bear leopards' faces or fleurs de lis.

But to return to the Marshals. In a charter1 of John, son of Gilbert (le Marshal), by which he gives to Hugh de Raleigh (probably his brother) the manor of Nettlecombe, in Somersethire, Elias, son of Robert," occurs as a witness. This Robert was doubtless Robert de Venuz, presumed uncle of John, son of Gilbert. His son's name being Elias, confirms the probability, with the preceding circumstances, of a relationship with William Alis. We afterwards meet with an Elias le Marshal, in Kent and Hants, and temp. Edward II., John Marshall marries Constance, daughter of John de Venuz. This same family of Marshall are, at an early period, met with as landholders in Kent, in that county spelling their name Marescal or Mascall. A branch of this family settled early in Sussex, and bore six fleurs de lis within a bordure engrailed. Six fleurs de lis are also the arms of Lenham, of Lenham in Kent, of whom, temp. John, there was an Elias de Lenham. The arms of the family of Hamsted are three fleurs de lis on a bend between three escallops; this family may have been a branch of the Marshalls who were owners of Hamsted-Marshall in Berkshire. The arms borne by the Marshalls Earls of Pembroke, sons of John, son of Gilbert le Marshall, were a bend fusilly, which were also those of the family of Raleigh. This coat was no doubt derived from Geoffrey le Marshall, or De Bec, of the family of Crispin, who bore lozengy; and, as Gilbert took his father-in-law's arms and office, he probably married the elder coheiress. His paternal arms would be retained by other members of the family, and these, as we shall have reason to see hereafter, were doubtless the fleurs de lis borne by the Mascalls. By the Pipe Roll of 31 Henry I., it appears that John, son of Gilbert the Marshall, paid a sum of

1 Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, ii. 163.

2 The witnesses, in early deeds, were generally the near relatives of the parties.

3 Geoffrey de Bec held a manor in the parish of Willian, co. Herts, at the Domesday Survey. This afterwards came to the family of Peyver. (Clutterbuck's Herts, ii. 526.) A pedigree of this family is there given, deriving them from Roger le Poer, Bishop of Salisbury. This is not correct; they bore a chevron between three fleurs de lis or charged with them, as appears by the Roll of the Battle of Boroughbridge, temp. Edward II., where two knights of the family were present: they were a branch of the family of Peyforer, of Kent, who bore six fleurs de lis, as did also their presumed relatives, the Lenhams of that county, who, it is believed, were a branch of the Marshalls, which accounts for the descent of property mentioned.