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Hwætmann

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

People of this name

• Hwætmann 2 - Hwætmann ‘of Yatton’ (Herefs.), fl. 1066
• Hwætmann 3 - Hwætmann ‘of Wey’ (Dors.), fl. 1066
• Hwætmann 4 - Hwætmann of London, d. by 1086