Hwætmann

Male
CPL
4 of 5

Discussion of the name

Hwætmann is an Old English masculine name formed from the elements hwæt, ‘sharp, bold, brave’, and mann, ‘man’. The first element is rarely found, but the second was a common suffix in names newly coined in the late Anglo-Saxon period (von Feilitzen 1937: 297, 324). Three or four other men called Hwætmann are currently recorded in PASE, and curiously they were all moneyers: at York in the period 979–85 (Hwætman 7), at Norwich under Æthelred II and Cnut, 1003–29 (Hwætman 5–6), and at the Dorset mints of Bridport and Dorchester under Harold I and Harthacnut, 1036–42 (Hwætman 2–4). The last may have been the same as the Hwætmann who struck at Bridport in the last years of Edward the Confessor and in the mid 1070s for William I (Hwætmann 1); such a long career is not entirely implausible, though it may be that we are dealing with two successive moneyers of the same name. No coins struck at Bridport between 1042 and 1065 are presently known, so that continuity between the moneyers at work in 1036–42 and 1065–6 cannot be proved or disproved (EMC).

Bibliography

EMC: On-line Early Medieval Corpus of Coin Finds/Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/dept/coins/emc

von Feilitzen 1937: Olof von Feilitzen, The Pre-Conquest Personal Names of Domesday Book, Nomina Germanica 3 (Uppsala: Almqvist and Wiksells, 1937)

Forms of the name

Spellings in Domesday Book: Wateman, Wetman

Forms in modern scholarship:

  von Feilitzen head forms: Hwætmann

  Phillimore edition: Hwætmann

  Alecto edition: Hwætmann

Distribution map of property and lordships associated with this name in DB

List of property and lordships associated with this name in DB

Holder 1066

Shire Phil. ref. Vill DB Spelling Holder 1066 Lord 1066 Tenant-in-Chief 1086 1086 Subtenant Fiscal Value 1066 Value 1086 Value Conf. Show on Map
Dorset 54,3 Wey Wateman Hwætmann 'of Wey' - Fulcred 'of Wey' - 2.50 1.50 1.50 A
Herefordshire 1,75 Yatton Wetman Hwætmann 'of Yatton' - William, king Humphrey the chamberlain 1.00 1.50 1.50 A
Totals