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The earliest document in which the name is found in this country is the Domesday Survey, which was finished A.D. 1086.1 There it occurs twice: in Hants, as Alis, and in Norfolk as Helias. It is not to be found in any form in any of the copies of the Battle Abbey Roll; but had not this celebrated monastic record been long since rejected as a faithful list of the families who fought at Hastings, the invaluable register of feudal proprietors, made by order of the Conqueror, towards the end of his reign, would be exclusive evidence of the existence of such as are mentioned by their surnames, though, as many are not so specified, the converse will not hold true.

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In Hampshire "William Alis" is mentioned as holding 'Ellatune," in Manbridge hundred, as tenant-in-chief of the king. This manor was rated at three hides, about 360 acres,

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1 It must be here premised, that the ordinary printed sources of information, and such MSS. as have facilities of reference, as well as some deeds and cartularies, have been consulted for the materials of these pages. Unfortunately, county histories do not exist for those counties in which, in early periods, the Ellises and Fitz-Ellises flourished, viz., Hants, Devon, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Berkshire, Oxon; and the vast mass of MS. documents, public and private, that would reveal many important facts, are almost practically useless (except with the labour of a life), till printed with indexes. Otherwise the amount of such materials in existence is almost incredible. In the British Museum are deposited upwards of 40,000 deeds and charters; the Public Record Offices contain an enormous collection of public and private documents; whilst the number in private hands must amount literally to millions, as one English nobleman, the Earl of Ellesmere, possesses upwards of a million of deeds, &c., arranged in the muniment-room of Ashridge.-(Lipscomb's Bucks, iii. 391.)

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2 There is a "William," a considerable under-tenant of Hugh de Port, in this county, who might have been this William Alis. A "William holds several manors of Ilbert de Lacy, in Yorkshire, who, it is very probable, was William Alis, and amongst them was Scanlan." In the Liber Niger (1166) there occurs an Elias de Eschanlande, the holder of two knights' fees and one-third. There is reason to believe (Elias de Port and Giraldus de Port occurring as witnesses, in 1089, to a charter, given in the Appendix to the History of the Abbey of St. Denis, p. 90), that the baronial family of Port was of common origin with the Ellises, and that they bore originally fleurs de lis. The family of Portman certainly did in the thirteenth century; and from the following facts it would appear that the two names are synonymous. Temp. Rich. I. Adam de Port is party to a plea of land in Beeding, co. Sussex, on the behalf of the Lord Braose. (Abbreviatio Plac. p. 5.) Adam de Bedynges occurs as a witness to a deed of one of the Braoses, about this period. In 1290, Adam Portman is mentioned in an instrument as a parishioner of Sele, alias Beeding (Cartwright's Rape of Bramber, pp. 225-6). Adam was a family name of the Ports; so was Henry, as also of the Cobhams in Kent, who, with the Pluckleys, a supposed offset, bore fleurs de lis. The Cobhams owned a good deal of land in Kent that appears to have belonged to the Ports, or

its annual value was assessed at £6. 7s., a sum of equivalent value to fifty times the amount in the present day. The next record in which we find mention of this property, is the Testa de Nevill, compiled temp. Henry III., where it is styled "Auditon," and is held by Roger Alys, as half a knight's fee, of Isabella Mortimer, instead of the crown. The next and last notice of this property, is in the Inquisitiones post Mortem (iii. 231) 22 Ric. II., where Roger Elys is stated to have died seized of Auditon, which he held as half a knight's fee, of Roger de Mortimer, Earl of March. - After this period no further notice of this place is met with in the printed public records. Whether it continued in the Ellises, and, if so, how long, or was soon after sold, or passed into other families by marriage, does not appear; but, as the name of Ellis is not mentioned in the List of Gentry for the County, 12 Hen. VI., and does not occur in any of the Heraldic Visitations which were made in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it is probable that about the time of the Wars of the Roses, this family, owning Allington (as it is now called), became extinct or obscure, and that its property passed into other hands. We have thus seen the Ellatune of 1086 continue for upwards of three centuries in the descendants of William Alis, its then owner; for, though the descent is not traced from generation to generation, there can be no doubt, from the scattered notices cited, of the identity of the family and the property till the time of Richard II.

We now return to the other Domesday notice, that of "Helius," or "Elias," who with others holds manors of the Bishop of Thetford or Norwich. Blomefield and Parkin, the historians. of the county, identify Burlingham and Plumstead as held by Elias, whose successors and descendants founded two families so named from their manors. The family of Burlingham bore five fleurs de lis on a cross or a saltire for their arms; and that of Plumstead one fleur de lis, with a label in chief. Temp. Ric. I., Robert Elias is witness to a charter, wherein William de Plumstede had certain lands confirmed to him. The question now arises, who was the "Elias" of Domesday? Was it William Alis? For the same individual is sometimes mentioned by his Christian name, sometimes by that and his surname, sometimes by his official character, sometimes by his own and his father's Christian name, and occasionally by his surname only. Collateral circumstances, and a deduction of the descent of the property, are therefore often the only means of identifying a proprietor named in Domesday. The only collateral circumstance here presented, is the occurrence of fleurs de lis in the arms of the

of which they were lords paramount. They and the Apulderfields, it is very probable, were branches of the Ports.

1 The family of Elyngton bore three fleurs de lis crusilly.

descendants of Elias, those bearings being also the charges prevalent in the armorial ensigns of the presumed descendants of William Alis, as will be seen hereafter: there is therefore little doubt that he and Elias, if not the same person, were very nearly related. The name of Elias does not occur in the list of Saxon proprietors of the time of the Confessor, and otherwise does not seem to have been in use by the Saxons.

M. L'Echaudé D'Anisy, in his elaborate Récherches sur les Familles de Domesday-of which it is to be regretted only a specimen was published-speaking of William Alis, says that he followed the Duke of Normandy into England, and was the ancestor of a family of Upper Normandy, now little known, which had its seat at the parish of Alis or Alisay, near Pont de l'Arche, and that his great-grandson, William Alis, with others, paid a fine for countenancing the marriage of Robert de Sackvill, A.D. 1184, to which the King, Henry II., was opposed.1 As to the presence of William Alis at the battle of Hastings, it will appear hereafter almost impossible, from his age at the time. M. D'Anisy, it is presumed, made this statement on no other authority than Domesday, which is a record not of the warriors who accompanied the Conqueror, but of the feudal proprietors of -England twenty years afterwards.

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Again, we do not know if it is a fact, or simply a calculation of descents, that the one William Alis was great-grandson of the other. As to William Alis or his descendants owning Alisay, this could not have been the case (as we shall hereafter see), and it is doubtful if any of the Alises of Normandy were descended from him. But, however this may have been, the William Halis of Domesday was a person of no slight importance in his day, as he is mentioned in a list of renowned Norman lords, from the time of William the Conqueror to that of Philip Augustus of France. His name occurs thrice in the pages of Ordericus Vitalis. Eustace, Earl of Brettville, he

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1 The Sackvilles and Alises were probably allied by marriage. Elias de Sackville was grandson of Herbrand de Sackville, who lived temp. Will. I. The latter had a daughter married to Walter, Lord of Aufay, who amongst other sons, had one named Elias (Collins' Peerage, ii. 260). Sir Robert de Sackville, who went to the Holy Land with Richard I., was probably the Robert mentioned in the text; he too had a son named Elias.

2 Alisay is a long, straggling, prettily situated village, containing several good houses, within a mile of the Pont de l'Arche station, on the Rouen and Paris Railway, and, being close to and parallel with it, is visible by all travellers, and its substantially built church-tower is a conspicuous object.

3 The English translator of Ordericus Vitalis states, that William Alis was one of the principal vassals of the lords of Breteuil; and that his

says, speaking of an engagement that took place near Ivery, in 1091, supported by William Alis and other barons, made a brave resistance to the enemy. A charter of William de Brettville, son of William Fitz-Osborn (Earl of Hereford), confirms the donations of his mesne tenants, William Halis and others, to the monastery of St. Evroult. William Halis also occurs as a witness to a charter of confirmation of William de Brettvill. 3

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It will be desirable now to produce the facts and reasons in support of the belief that William Alis and his family bore fleurs de lis for their arms.1 We first find a pedigree of FITZ

family gave its name to two mills, one at Breteuil, the other at Carentonne, near Bernai, an estate which it had held for a long period. But he erroneously infers that William Alis had a father of the same name, "who was witness," he says, "of the confirmation, by William Fitz-Osborne, of the grant of Guernanville to St. Evroult." This confirmation was by William Fitz-Osborne's son, William de Brettville, the feudal superior of William Alis, and to which he was witness (ii. 187). He also states, that William Alis was donor of lands to the Canons of the Priory of St. Denis, near Southampton, which was confirmed, a long time after, by Geoffry Lucy, Bishop of Winchester.

1 Ordericus Vitalis, translated by Mr. Forrester.

4 vols. iii. 344.

2 Ibid., ii. 191.

3 Ibid., ii. 187.

Ed. Bohn, 1854.

4 The prevalent opinion amongst writers on the subject is, that hereditary arms were not in use before the period of the Crusades; but it will be seen, throughout this essay, it is assumed that they were of a very much earlier origin (which opinion the author has given at large, in a pamphlet on the subject, published by Mr. J. Russell Smith); indeed the genealogical deductions herein advanced, are based on such an assumption, and could for the most part never otherwise have been made: the belief in the existence for centuries before the Norman Conquest of hereditary heraldic symbols, has been throughout the guide and clue to the hypotheses and conclusions here made, and which they, in their turn, amply warrant. It is quite true that, at an early period, before quartering of arms was introduced, from the frequent changes of arms by families on marrying heiresses, it appears that they were not hereditary, but such were exceptional cases, though, from the scantiness of records, such changes are prominently recorded, whilst the quiet descent of property is little noticed. Younger sons will be often found to have transmitted, for several descents, the original arms of the family, whilst the chief line has changed them in each generation. But sometimes the converse happens, and a cadet relinquishes the paternal arms, and adopts those of a family whose estate was acquired by marriage.

The tinctures of coats of arms in these pages are very often omitted, as not essential to the validity of the reasoning employed.

The armorial bearings quoted are taken from the heraldic dictionaries, which do not profess to give sources of information. A dictionary, how

ELLIS, in which these bearings occur. Ellis Fitz-Ellis, lord of the manor of Lechland, had a son, Sir Richard, whose great-greatgrand-daughter Elizabeth, a heiress, married Sir Gilbert St.Owen, from whom are descended the Vanes, who quarter her arms, viz., Argent a bend between six fleurs de lis gules. Elyas Fitz-Elyas, temp. King John, pays scutage for the honour of [the Earl of] Gloucester.3 Sir William Fitz-Elyas held of the same honour, at the same time, and is mentioned in several records: by Emma, his wife, daughter of Fulke Bray, he acquired the manors of Ockley, Wormenhall, and Waterpirie, co. Oxford, which remained in his descendants to the time of 12 Henry VI., or perhaps later, when John Fitz-Ellis is recorded in the list of the gentry of that county. This family bore also, Argent a bend between six fleurs de lis gules, as they appeared in the east window of a chapel in Waterpirie Church, where also there are or were a monument of a man in armour, kneeling, and on his surcoat these arms; and in an arch of the wall of the chapel a Knight Templar, with the same arms on his shield.

These bearings, with a canton ermine, are also attributed to the name of Fitz-Ellis in the heraldic dictionaries. The Dukes and Earls of Brittany, and their descendants, bearing other names, bore ermine for their coat armour. Conan and Alan were their prevalent family names. Now, in 1166 (12 Henry II.), Conan Fitz-Elias, then under age, held lands of the Earl of Britanny; at the same time, William Fitz-Ellis, also under age, held lands in Essex, as did Alan Fitz-Ellis temp. King John, if not earlier. Elias, the Chamberlain, in the twelfth century, was a benefactor to St. John's Abbey, Colchester. "Elias Camerarius meus," is a witness to a charter of William Earl of Albini, A.D.1170. This might have been the Ellis Fitz-Ellis previously mentioned. These four Fitz-Ellises were probally brothers. Who was their father? He could not be living in 1166, because Conan and

ever, that would do so, would supply a great desideratum. It would be of great assistance in inquiries of this nature, if the earliest period at which a coat of arms is found, were given along with the authority, whether a roll of arms, stained glass, church monument, or heraldic visitation.

1 Harl. MSS. Brit. Mus. 1548, p. 58.

2 This place is not to be found in any of the Record publications: it is probably the "Lessland" of Domesday in Hants, afterwards called Litesland or Luceland. A family, of the name of Lechland, lived in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, at Colliton, in Devonshire, as appears by a notice in the Visitation of that county (Harl. MSS. 1020, p. 325); and three descents of a branch are given in the Visitation of London, 1634 (Harl. MSS. 1476); but without arms in either case.

3 Rotuli Cancellari, p. 56.

4 M. I., in Oxon, Bucks, and Berks (Harl. MSS. 4170, p. 10).

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