Notices of the Ellises, of France (from the time of Charlemagne) : and of England (from the Conquest), to the present time ...

Front matter

OF FRANCE

{from the time of Charlemagne ),

AND OF ENGLAND

Part I

Investigation proves, from authentic written evidences, from the Conquest downwards, that the name of Ellis, like most nam . o, was spelt very variously, amongst others, in the following different ways : —

Alis, Halis, and Hallis;

Elias, and Helias ;

Elis, Ellis, Elies, Ellys, and Elys;

Elice, Ellice ;

Hellis, Hellys, Hilles, Helles ;

Hollis, Holys, Holies ;

lies, Ilys ;

Eyles, Eales.

B

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 Alls, 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.

In Hampshire “ William Alis ” is mentioned as holding “Ellatune,” in Manbridge hundred, as tenant-in-chief of the king.2 This manor was rated at three hides, about 360 acres, and

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 Eitz-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, 89 1.)

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 fieurs de Us. 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 Flac. p. 5.) Adam deBedynges 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 Br amber, 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 fieurs 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 W ars of the Roses, this family, owning Allington 1 (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’Echaude D’Anisy, in his elaborate Recherches sur les Families 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 Y 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.

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,2 3 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 Vitalise Eustace, Earl of Brettville, he

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.1 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.2 William Halis also occurs as a witness to a charter of confirmation of William de Brettvill.3

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.4 We first find a pedigree of Fitz-

faraily 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 Guevnanville 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. Ed. Bohn, 1854. 4 vols. iii. 344.

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. Bussell 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,1 in which these bearings occur. Ellis Fitz-Ellis, lord of the manor of Lechland,2 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.4

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 probably 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 (. Karl . 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.

8 Rotuli Cancellari, p. 56.

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

Alan were then minors, and in ward. Robert Camcrarius 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 Yenuz (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 dancette. 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 Us) 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 Eitz-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 Eletham (of which Robert the Chamberlain was lord) to Marrigg Abbey, before the time of Edward III.

A Gerard Eitz-Elyas and Ralph Eitz-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.1 In the Chartulary of the Priory of Christ Church, co. Hants, there is a charter, dated 15 Edward III., of “ Henricus filius Elyae dictus Wyrle , filius et hseres Henrici Eitz-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.2 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.4

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

2 Suckling’s Suffolk.

4 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 Us 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 counter changed.

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.

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 Massy s 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 deNevill, p. 216, we meet with a Simon Kidel, at Bochester. 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 Eerbies of Kent settled there temp. Edward II., and, bearing a fess between three goats’ heads erased, were probably descended from Adam de Kiddall of Eereby, 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 Eitz-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. Ho not then all these circumcarries 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.1 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 Alius Engerand impleads Geoffrey Eitz-Elis for half an hide of land in Froille, co. Hants, where the latter says he has several farms.2 Elias de Eroille occurs in the same rolls.3 The arms of Froyle are three lions' gambs. The name of Geoffry Fitz-Elis occurs also, at the same time, in Kent.4 The family of Newdigate, of Newdigate, co. Surrey, bore three lions' gambs also, and for a crest aj deur 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 bend ways within a bordure gules, were the arms of Erdington. Elias de Erdinton occurs temp. King J ohn, in Surrey ; Ertingdon, or Arthington, is a subinfeudation of the manor of