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surety of Elias de Crest. Hugh occurs 1114, and Aimon in 1190, from whom there is a regular pedigree, containing several Williams. The arms of this family were, gules a bend wavy, between six martlets argent. The only notice of the family of Ally to be met with is in the Table of Arms at the end of vol. 1 of Desbois' Dictionary, where this coat is assigned to Alli en AuvergneGules, a fess wavy, between six martlets argent. This immediately leads to the belief that the similar coat of Rochefort was that of the heiress of Ally; and when we find, in connection with the preceding circumstances, that the arms of the family of Ales and Alais (before mentioned) were three bars wavy, and of another branch a fess between three martlets, it is difficult not to believe that Ally is another form of Alais and Alis; and hence the derivation of the fief of Rochefort from William de Gommeth, may be taken for granted and accounted for.2

We now propose to present what particulars ean be gleaned of the French family of Ales or Alais, before adverted to. The most elaborate researches seem to have been made for this purpose, the result of which is very fully given in the Armorial de la France, by Hozier. This article is condensed in the Dictionnaire de la Noblesse, by Chesnaye-Desbois; but in the latter much is assumed, which in Hozier is doubted or denied. The family of Ales, seigneurs of Corbet, in Touraine, were desirous of connecting their ancestors with families of the same or similar name of greater antiquity; in Desbois these families are considered identical, in Hozier of distinct origin. The pedigree of Ales of Corbet begins with Jean Ales, seigneur of Corbet in 1452, who is styled "noble homme." Their arms were a fess between three martlets, which does not resemble any known coat of the families of supposed kindred origin; but this, it need not be remarked, is no argument against it. The family supposed to be identical with that of Ales is called Alluye, Alogia, &c. But

1 Dict. de la Noblesse- Chesnaye-Desbois.

2 There was an English family of the name of Rochfort, evidently descended from William de Gommeth, probably from a brother of Guy le Rouge. In Wiffen's Tasso (Bohn's Library), there is a list of Crusaders; amongst these occurs that of Elias de Rochford, temp. Richard I. In Bloomfield's and Parkin's Norfolk, is a long account of the Rochfords (ix. 104), of whom Waleran, Simon, and Guy, lived temp. Stephen. The name of Guy often occurs subsequently; that of a Sir Milo is met with in 1309, this being the name of Guy the Crusader's brother. The family was most numerous in Norfolk, and bore several varied coats of arms. One was quarterly or and gules, a bordure sable bezantée, the precise coat of one of the Ales', according to a seal of the date of 1181 (Hozier). Another coat was quarterly-in the first quarter, a fleur de lis; in another, an annulet. One of the coats of the Ales', 1218, was a shield charged with six annulets (Hozier).

these are obviously the Latin forms of the word, as every document in which their name occurs is in that tongue. This difference of spelling is the chief if not sole ground of Hozier's objection to the synonymous meaning of the two names. In French documents, the name of Alluye is not met with, and its use seems to have ceased with the discontinuance of Latin in deeds. None of the name of Alluye are met with later than the thirteenth century. The first of the name of Ales, is Pierre d'Ales, in 1338, of the baillage of Orleans. There are indeed many persons of the name of Ales, who occur in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but apparently not immediately connected with Alluye of Alluye, or that neighbourhood, one of whom, 1222, Sir Robert de Ales, Knight, speaks of his "tithes of Ales."

The first in the pedigree of Alluye is Hugh, mentioned in a deed, 978, vassal of Leutgarde de Vermandois. The next is (his supposed son) Hugh d'Aloia, seigneur of Chateau-en-Anjou and St. Christophe, in Touraine, vassal and friend of Fulke Nerva, Count of Anjou, and living 1025. He had Hugh, who succeeded him, living 1062-85, and Walter living 1069. Hugh was father of another Hugh, living in 1073 and 1118; and Geoffry, living 1081. Eventually, in the thirteenth century, Hugh, the sixth of the name, left three daughters and coheiresses.

Alluye,1 still so called, is a small town on the Loire, in the

1 The following places in France are spelt similarly, and may have been settlements of the Alises. (Alisi, however, a town in Burgundy, in the diocese of Autun, and Alais, Alez, or Ales, in Languedoc, near Anduse, north of Nismes, are said to be mentioned in Cæsar's Commentaries) :ALLAS de Verviers, a village in Perigord.

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ALLUETS le Roi, a village in the Isle of France, diocese of Chartres. ALLUYES, a village of Nivernais.

It would be rash, however, to presume that either of these places took their name from an Alis, unless ownership by one of the family could be shown; for there are places in England that would seem to have been named after an Alis or Ellis, which however existed in the Saxon times, as Ellisfield in Hants, Ellesfield in Oxon, and Ellesham in Lincolnshire.

Alais, or Alez, in Languedoc, gave the title of Count as early as the year 1000, to the family who took their surname from it, who were also Marquises of Auduse. This family is said to be derived, in the direct male line, from St. William of Toulouse. (Courcelles, iii. 22.) The town of Alais was owned by this family for a long time jointly with that of PeletNarbonne, Bernard Pelet being seigneur of Alais at the beginning of the twelfth century. Pelet, sieur de Sartel à Arras, bore azure a fleur de lis or,

diocese of Chartres, and may be conceived to be a corruption of Helouis, and to have been so named from some personage with that designation. The fief of Alluye was obtained by Gerard, Bishop of Chartres, from the Emperor Charles the Bald, for his church, of whom it seems to have been held by Arnoul, vassal of the church of Chartres, who, in a contemporary document, is said "to be domiciled at Alluye," and nephew of Arnoul, the second, Bishop of Orleans in 987, "qui etait tres riche, tres savant, et tres noble." Alluye, in the next century, passed into the family of Gouet, by the marriage of Matilda, heiress of Alluye, with William Gouet, who died about 1059, seigneur of Petit-Perche, or Perche-Gouet, a considerable barony. He was succeeded by three generations of Williams, the last of whom left an only daughter and heiress. A branch of this family seems to have settled in England, a William Gouet holding half a knight's fee in Norfolk, 1166. Whose daughter, Matilda, the heiress of Alluye, was, does not appear. Gerard, Bishop of Chartres, occupied that see 885-888; he may be well supposed to have invested some relative with the fief of Alluye, from whom doubtless Arnoul, the above-mentioned tenant, was descended. A predecessor of Gerard was Elias, bishop 840-849. This circumstance affords strong sanction to the notion of the identity of the families of Alluye, Ales, Alis, and Elias. Ferté-Alais is on the Essone, near Estampes and Alluye; this we have seen belonged to William Gommeth, the apparent owner of Alisay; and there can be little doubt that Alais was the vernacular name of the family of Alluye, and the same as Alis, as would more clearly appear by the fact, that there was a priory of St. Germain at Alluye, as well as a monastery of St. Germain at Alisay, a coincidence unmistakeably indicating a connection.1 We have, morewithin a bordure engrailed of the last; which circumstance, together with the descent of the Alez', would seem to indicate an identity with the Alises. Alet, a small city in Upper Languedoc, at the foot of the Pyrenees, might have derived its name from an Alis, as Bera, it is said, a son of St. William, in 813, founded a monastery there.

1 In the Histoire des Comtes de Perche et Alençon, par M. Gilles Bry (1660), p. 153, is the following passage, that seems to refer to the family of Alis" In the time of Geoffry, eldest son of Rotrou Earl of Perche (temp. William I.), a Geoffrey, 'bâtard de Loysé,' and his wife, gave to the religious of St. Denis the moiety of the Church of St. Germain de Loysé, along with the tithes, and the moiety of the Church of St. Jean au Chateau de Mortaigne,' the witnesses to the charter thereof being Geoffrey the [aforesaid] Count, Beatrix his wife, and Rotrou, son of the Count; Gerard de Sassy de Loysé giving the other moiety. Walter de Loysé-Gruel (the surname of the Seigneurs de la Frette, an ancient house of Perche) was also a benefactor to St. Denis: the witnesses to a charter of his being William Gouet and Eustachia his wife, with their sons Hugh,

over, the same Christian names prevalent in both familiesHugh, Geoffry, and Walter; we find the fleurs de lis in the arms of Alluye (viz., three bars wavy, each charged with three fleurs de lis, on the seal of "John dominus de Castello, in Anjou," in 1230) and three bars wavy, we have seen to be the arms of the family of Dauncy, that appears to have sprung from the same stock as William Gommeth, the owner of Alisay. But how to affiliate Walter, the (presumed) grandfather of Sir William Halis, would be difficult without further information. The Walter D'Alluye mentioned, seems to have lived a generation subsequently; but he might have had an uncle, Walter, whose period of birth would accord with the time at which Walter, the father of Robert, may be supposed to have been born.

We now come to treat of the French families of Elie, or Elias, who, we shall see, appear to have been of the same origin as Alluye and Alis. In the Dictionnaire Généalogique (Paris, 1757, 3 vols. 12mo.), we find a family of Elie bearing azure, a chevron

William, and Robert. It is highly probable that De Loysé is a form of Alisay, and Gruel of Gouel. In the Dictionary of M. De Courcelles are some particulars of this family of Gruel, not commencing, however, earlier than the end of the twelfth century. None can be found of any family called Loysé. A Hugh D'Olesi occurs as witness to a charter in 1146, who, it is very likely, was of the family of Alis, taking the local name, Alisay. About the same time, a Hugh de Lisy, probably the same person, was witness, along with Elie de Montmirail, to a charter of Gaucher de Chastillon, and Ada his wife (Du Chesne, Hist. de la M. de Chastillon, pp. 34, 35). A Silvester de Alisi occurs amongst the list of renowned Norman lords of the time of Phillip Augustus of France, as also, in 1166, holding half a knight's fee in Yorkshire, for the heirs of - Turpin."

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There seems a remarkable connection between the Alises and their settlements and the name of St. Germain, many families so called bearing the fleur de lis. St. Germain-en-Auvergne bore gules, three fleurs de lis or; of Normandy, gules, one fleur de lis or, and also the colours reversed; St. Germain, Beaupré Viscomte D'Oignon en le Marche, azure, semée de fleurs de lys d'or au lambel d'argent; St. Germain D'Apjohn, Chevalier de Malte, en Auvergne, d'or, semée de fleurs de lys d'argent. In the thirteenth century, according to a seal in D'Anisy's Recueil des Sceaux, Samson de St. Germain bore a fleur de lis. Arnaud D'Apchon, a Crusader in 1102, bore or, semée de fleurs de lis d'azur. The seigneurie of Arpajohn, in Auvergne, gave name to this family, which, in one of its branches, took the name of St. Germain. A Bernard D'Arpajohn occurs in 1170, and an Helie in 1460. Arpajohn, on the Loire, bore formerly the name of Chartres, and was the chateau royal of Chanteloup. A place called St. Germain's is contiguous. As these localities are in the neighbourhood of Alluye, it is difficult not to conceive some intimate connection between these families and the Alises.

Helie Malifastre, Chevalier, gives in 1215, to the monks of Plessis, the church of St. Germain d'Elle (D'Anisy, Recueil des Chartes).

between two roses in chief, and a fleur de lis in base, or; which are the arms also borne by Helye, of Dieppe.1 Helles, in Dauphiné, bears gules a fleur de lis or, a chief chequy or and sable. No pedigrees are to be met with of these families; but here we have direct proof of the use of fleurs de lis by the French Ellises, who were doubtless of the same race as that of which we are about to treat.

2

In Moreri, and the Père Anselme (viii. 242), we find that the family of Pompadour, of the Limosin, was originally styled Elie, or Hélie, the first of whom was Geoffry Elie, seigneur of Ségur in 1179. Guy and Geoffry were the names of two of his sons. This family is said to be a branch of the Counts or Viscounts of Limoges, and with the highest probability. Gerard, Vicomte de Limoges, in 975, had issue, Guy, Geoffry, Aimery, Gerard, Hilduin, &c., from one of whom descended an Elias, in the twelfth century. Now, we have a remarkable correspondeuce of names with these in the family of Alluye. In 1063, we meet with a Guy and Aimery d'Alluye. In 1080, we find a Hilduin d'Alluye, and his son Goscelin; and in 1229, a Girard d'Alea, a vassal of the church of Chartres. Gerard, we have seen, was the name of the bishop who enfeoffed the tenants of Alluye with that fief, and his episcopal predecessor was named Elias. But the further correspondence of arms of the two families, makes that almost certain, which otherwise would be scarcely doubtful, viz., identity of origin. Aimery, son of Gerard the Viscount, was progenitor of the Vicomtes de Rochechouart, of whom Aimery, a Crusader, in 1096, bore three bars undy or wavy, the arms of most of his descendants, in all their branches. These were the arms of the Alluye.

The succession and relationship of the Vicomtes de Limoges is not clearly established, though they are doubtless descended from Gerard Count of Limoges, or the Limosin (the Viscounts being almost invariably of the family of the Counts), son by his second wife of Gerard Count of Auvergne, in 839; but it is certain that Gerard, the above-mentioned Viscount, was descended, directly or indirectly, from Fulcher, seigneur de Ségur and Vicomte de Limoges, in the ninth century; and it is probable he

1 Elie was also spelt Elyes, or Helyes, in France. There was a family with this orthography, which flourished in the Bessin, in Lower Normandy. A copious account is given of them in Desbois' Dictionnaire, beginning with Richard Helyes, in the fourteenth century. Their arms were azure, a chevron between three acorus argent, which were probably derived from a similar coat of Breteville, viz., azure, three acorns or. It may be imagined, from the Alises being vassals of the Earls of Bretville, that there should have been an alliance between their descendants, among whom, probably, may be numbered this family of Helyes. 2 Dictionnaire Historique.

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