Notices of the Ellises of England, Scotland, and Ireland, from the conquest to the present time

9
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 Wil-
liam the Conqueror, and received from him large grants of land
in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. The most striking and interest-
ing 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. Archi-
bald 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 re-
specting 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 Massys of Podington, co.
Cheshire, bore quarterly, in the first and fourth quarters thyee 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, Shilling-held, Erdington, Marshal,
Lenham, &c, in which the name of Elias occurs, are mentioned in the text.