Surnames were used in England
from the Norman Conquest but they were often temporary and changeable.
If a man lived near the wood in Cressing he might be called john of
the Wood, whereas in the local town of Braintree he might be called
John Cressing. It was when taxes were imposed directly rather than down
through the feudal system that surnames became permanent. Bill Bryson,
in "Mother Tongue" suggests that the poll tax of 1379 was
an important boost to the use of surnames.
The derivation of the surname Collis is variously attributed to Cole,
meaning dark, Col, meaning a small hill, and Colas, a shortened form
of Nicholas. The form Collis is found in parish registers around Cambridge
in the 16th century and the Essex branch of the family probably emigrated
from there soon. afterwards.
There have not been many famous Collis's. The Irish branch has produced
at least two notable writers, Maurice Corns who wrote about the Far
East and John Stewart Collis who wrote "The Worm Forgives the Plough"
about his time on farms in Sussex and Dorset during the last war. Cambridge
gave us our only famous soldier; Gunner James Collis won the Victoria
Cross at the battle of Maiwand in 1882. Then he came back to London
and was jailed for two years for bigamy!
However none of these has any close relationship to the several thousand
people who have born the name Collis in Essex. The Essex Collis's have
been (mostly) law abiding craftsmen; weavers, carpenters, braziers,
bakers,