Jonathan Ennis, Weston-under-Penyard 1610
There have been families of Ennis/Innes/Innis in the area of Weston-under-Penyard, Herefordshire, England, at least since about 1600, up until the present day.My mother's family were Innes-Brasenells, and passed down by word of mouth within the family is that this line of the Innis/Innes family moved from Scotland during the Jacobite Rebellion.On tracing that line I have found that the name changed from Ennis to Innis during the 17th/18th century.If the family story is true, that would suggest that all the Ennises in Herefordshire are Inneses from Scotland.Certainly, my immediate relatives (as far as I can remember), brought up in the Birmingham area, have worn the Innes clan tartan continuously.My direct line goes back to Mary Innes, who moved to Birmingham from Herefordshire in the early 1800s, and from her there is a direct line back to Jonathan Enus/Ennis of 1610.Curiously, my grandfather gave the christian name Ennis to his daughter (my Aunt), and she was Ennis Ivy Brasenell.He himself was Joseph Innis Brasenell, and his father was William Innes Brasenell.My grandfather never mentioned the Ennis family, and it wasn't until I started researching that I discovered this spelling, which suggests that my great-grandmother, who influenced the naming of my Aunt Ennis, knew a lot more about the family history than I realized.If she was right about the Ennis family, she was probably right about them originating in Scotland.This could have direct relevance to all the Ennis branches in the Eastern United States if they trace their ancestry back to Herefordshire.