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

22
the King in capite by Robert the Marshal. The descent of the
manor of Gare cannot be traced ; it may have been merged in
Lavington; however, families of the name of Gayer bore a
fleur de lis and a chief for their arms, who not unlikely took
their appellation from this place. By the Pipe Roll of 1131, it
appears that Henry de la Mare paid for lands in Wilts and Oxon,
on account of his brother Robert, then deceased. This Henry,
we have before seen reason to suppose, was son of the William
de Mara of Domesday, and was certainly ancestor, probably
father, of Peter, Robert, and perhaps others of the name re-
corded in the Liber Niger. The lands for which payment was
made in Wilts, were doubtless these owned by Peter, and equally
doubtless came to Henry, from his presumed father, William.
Was Robert the Marshal the father then of William — in fact,
was that another title, and are we hereby furnished with the
Christian name of Normannus ? l Who inherited the office of
marshal? The office descending to Henry from his father, was
that of veltrarius — keeper or master of the (royal) hounds. But
Sir Ralph de Broc, temp. Henry II., it is said, held the office of
marshal of the King's servants (or rather meretrices) in trust
for Robert Testard ; and so it seems did his son, Sir Robert de
Broc, or else on his own account, for he styles himself, in a deed,
" Marescallus Anglise." This family of De Broc, at an early
period, were landowners in Sussex, Surrey, and Hants, bore
fleurs de lis for their arms, and one at least bore the Christian
name of Elias : the family of Croc, with whom they intermarried,
also bore fleurs de lis, in the person of more than one member,
used the name of Elias, and were of importance in the twelfth
century in Hants. In the Pipe Roll of 1131, we find, in Surrey
and Oxon, the names of Robert Testard 3 and Robert Fitz-
W alter. Two coats of Fitz- Walter, of Bucks, are, on a bend
three fleurs de lis, and the same over all a shield quarterly. The
1 There is a document called the " Tahula Eliensis " (from its having
been originally kept in Ely Cathedral), of the time of the Conqueror,
viz. a.d. 1087, containing the names, portraits, and armorial bearings of
several Norman knights. A facsimile is engraven in Bentham's History
of Ely, where its authenticity and history are discussed. In the list
occurs the name of " Robertus Normannus Marescalis," a remarkable tes-
timony to the correctness of the theories of the text : the arms assigned
are a lion rampant ; but, either the armorial bearings are of more recent
introduction, or, if any were there originally, they must have been obli-
terated and renovated incorrectly, for many of them were certainly first
borne by the families to whom they are assigned, a long time after the
Conquest.
2 This name and family are derived from William Teste Ilardie, Duke
of Burgundy, son of Kaineld, who married Adeliza, daughter of Richard,
second Duke of Normandy. — (Kozier's Armorial de France, tome i. reg. 3.)