ELLIS, Guy

Guy was one of four sons and heirs in gavelkind of Thomas Ellis, knight of the shire for Kent in December 1421 and sheriff six years later.3 A plea of early 1438 gives Thomas’s four sons as Thomas, Guy, Richard and John, the first three all described as ‘gentlemen’: CP40/708, rot. 417. The Ellises were an established minor gentry family who had held the manors of Burton in Kennington in mid Kent and Stoneacre in Otham near Maidstone in the fourteenth century. Thomas was almost certainly trained in the law and on several occasions acted as a feoffee and an arbiter in disputes for his fellow landowners.4 E. Hasted, Kent ed. Drake, vii. 551; The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 10-11. The family also had connexions with the Cinque Ports: in 1392 a chantry chapel had been established in St. Peter’s church, Sandwich, to pray for the soul of their kinsman, another Thomas Ellis†, sometime mayor of that Port.5 Kent Chantries (Kent Rec. Ser. xii), 263.

Guy, described as a ‘gentleman’, almost certainly followed in his father’s footsteps in becoming a lawyer, although the details of his education are equally obscure.6 An individual with the surname Ellis was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn in 1427 but it is impossible to identify him conclusively with our MP: L.Inn Adm. i. 5. In 1431, as ‘of Rainham’, he was assessed for tax on the manor of Dane John within the city of Canterbury. The circumstances of his acquisition of this manor are not known, but is it likely that he acquired it from the Chicche family, which was related to the Ellises.7 Feudal Aids, iii. 56; and cf. notes to the biography of Thomas Chicche† in The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 559. His father may have already died by that date, and certainly did so within three years. Subsequently, Guy shared with his brothers property held in gavelkind in Willesborough near Ashford, close to their home at Kennington, 8 CP40/693, rots. 141d, 402; 707, rot. 116; 708, rot. 417. and he had dealings with them and neighbours in the same locality until the 1450s.9 John Rylands Univ. Lib., Manchester, Phillipps chs. PHC/475, 480, 481. He was of sufficient standing to be required to take the oath not to maintain peace-breakers in the county in the spring of 1434, but there is little evidence of his professional activities, save that in 1442 he was named as a feoffee of property in Rainham, and three years later he witnessed a quitclaim of property in Kent made to John Martin, a kinsman of the former j.c.p.10 CPR, 1429-36, p. 389; 1441-6, p. 75; CCR, 1441-7, p. 349.

Ellis’s first employment in public affairs was not in Kent but in Essex, and did not come until November 1451 when he was among those appointed to a commission of sewers. Shortly afterwards he seems to have entered the service of Archbishop Kemp, who was translated to Canterbury on 6 Sept. 1452 following the death of Archbishop Stafford, for before 6 Aug. 1453 he was appointed bailiff of New Romney, an office in the gift of the archbishop. The nature of Ellis’s connexion with Kemp is unclear and it may be that he had been employed by the archbishops earlier in his career. He was probably already acting as bailiff when he was elected as one of the barons to represent New Romney in the Parliament which assembled at Reading on 6 Mar. 1453. The settlement of his parliamentary wages for this long Parliament (which did not finally close until 18 Apr. 1454) prompted a long and acrimonious dispute with the Portsmen of New Romney, ending in litigation in the King’s bench. In 1453-4 the jurats noted that all Ellis’s wages were outstanding and while in the following year they settled the debt owing to his fellow baron, John Chenew*, they only made a payment of 40s. to Ellis, representing less than half the sum he claimed was due to him. Later on they enlisted the help of John Greenford*, the steward of Dover castle, in presenting their case to the lieutenant of Dover, Richard Witherton, who was responsible for executing the Crown’s writ for the payment of parliamentary wages.11 New Romney assmt. bk. 1448-1526, NR/FAc 3, ff. 21v, 26. On 13 Oct. 1456 a second writ was directed to Witherton commanding him to ensure that the Portsmen of Romney made payment to Ellis for 163 days’ attendance in Parliament. Witherton stated in response that Ellis had by his own account spent only 89 days in Parliament and had received £4 9s. from Romney in satisfaction of the sums due to him; but Ellis appeared in King’s bench the following Hilary term to accuse Witherton of making a false return.12 KB27/783, rot. 70d. The outcome of this dispute is unknown, for although in 1457-8 delegations from Romney rode to consult with Ellis at Dover, there is no indication of how much money he finally received.13 New Romney assmt. bk. NR/FAc 3, f. 33.

Ellis had no further connexion with the administration of New Romney after the end of his short term as bailiff, and almost certainly returned to Kennington to continue his practice as a lawyer. In August 1456 Richard Essex of Challock, Kent, made a gift of goods and chattels to him and two others but there is no other evidence of his professional affairs.14 CCR, 1454-61, p. 191.