The Surname Jellis & its Derivatives
Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to develop, i.e. change through spoken languages and accents, often leading to astonishing spelling variants. The surname Jellis is no exception and is recorded in many forms, including:
Gellis, Giles, Gillis, Gills, Gyles, Jiles, Jilles, Jills, Jealous, Jellis, Jelliss & Jollis
Today, the surname Jellis with this spelling, and other forms of the name, ranging from Agidi and Gillette and to Ilchman and Gillyns, can be found in almost every European country.
The Origin of the Surname Jellis
The name JELLIS has its roots in Ancient Greece and later in France; it is a reference to a man who left Greece and became a hermit in an area somewhere in today’s France, living a simple life, healing the sick with herbal remedies and befriending the frail and the old. He was discovered by a royal hunting party when the hind, from whose milk he lived, was pursued to his hermitage. He became known as Ægidius, meaning ‘a wearer of goatskin’ and was later canonised as St. Giles. The name Jellis and its derivatives are baptismal names for Giles, a short-form of ‘Ægidius’.
In today’s Catholic Church, St. Giles is the patron saint of beggars & cripples; hence the church built by the Cripplegate in the city of London’s great wall being named ‘The Church of St. Giles Cripplegate’. St. Giles is portrayed in many stained glass windows of churches throughout Europe wearing a goatskin robe.
The Surname Jellis in History:
The name Jellis was introduced into England & Scotland from Europe by the Normans; the derivative names Gilo and Ghilo appear in the Domesday book of 1086.
The name Ailward Gile appears in the pipe-rolls of the County of Buckinghamshire in 1176.
A man called John Gellis is recorded as living in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1527.
A Thomas Jellis is listed as a Rector of Ellough (Willingham All Saints), Suffolk in 1595, whilst it was under the patronage of Thomas Plyters, Esq.
My 7th great-grandfather, Ralf Jellis (ref: 1001), who was born in about 1620, died 1709 in Steppingley, Bedfordshire, and buried 21st September 1709 in Millbrook, also in Bedfordshire, he married Mary (nee Peach) in April 1648.
Henry Jealous was the father of Jane, who was christened at St. Benet’s church, Paul’s Wharf, in the diocese of London on 22nd December 1678.
Also recorded in the diocese of London was Henry Jollis, whose daughter Ann was christened at St. Anne’s Blackfriars on 22nd November 1680.
The Surname Jellis in the Colonies:
One of the first settlers in the New World of the American colonies was Jonathon Giles, who appears in the very first muster for Virginia Colony on 16th February 1623.
My 1st Cousin, 3 times removed (the son of my 3rd Great-grandfather) Thomas Jellis (ref: 4001) born November 1824 and died 13 February 1891, emigrated to Australia, before the 1851 Census his wife Maria (nee Swales) and their first two children, Thomas George and Rebecca. They settled in Kew, today a suburb of Melbourne.
My second cousin, twice removed, Mabel Jellis, born 5th August 1905, daughter of Frederick Jellis (Shake) Jellis & Mary Ann (nee Gulliver), is recorded as an ‘early Tasmanian’ in the ‘World tree Project’ of Australia.
Sources:
www.surnamedb.com
www.ancestry.com
www.worldtreeproject.com.au
www.british-history.ac.uk |
