PASE

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Æschere

Gender: Male

Author: CPL

Editorial Status: 4 of 5

Discussion of the name

The name which DB spells Essocher defeated von Feilitzen (1937: 248), who marked it down as ‘obscure’, but in fact it probably represents the masculine Old England name Æschere, formed from the elements æsc (‘ash; spear, lance; ship’) and here (‘army’). That name occurs twice in DB in the regular form Ascere, for townsmen of Colchester and Ipswich alive in 1086. Elsewhere in DB, Æsc– appears spelled Ess– in the personal name Essul (Æscwulf), and in some place-names; –cher commonly represents the final element –here when preceded by an –h–; and one of the scribes involved in the various recensions of the Domesday materials inserted an unnecessary –o– at the same point in a similar name, spelling Æscræd as Ascored. These parallels do not constitute absolute proof that Essocher stood for Æschere, though no better explanation presents itself.

If the Normans did garble this name in Sussex, they showed themselves magnificently unaware of a name which, although uncommon in current use, may well have resonated with every member of elite Anglo-Saxon society: a fictional Æschere was an important figure in Beowulf, King Hrothgar’s best-loved follower, slain by Grendel’s mother in revenge for the loss of her son and a paradigm of thegnliness who was remembered by the grieving king as ‘everything the world admires in a wise man and a friend’ (Beowulf, lines 1231–44, 1417–21, 2120–8).

Bibliography

Beowulf: An Edition with shorter relevant texts, ed. Bruce Mitchell and Fred C. Robinson (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1998)

Beowulf, trans. Seamus Heaney (London: Faber and Faber, 1999)

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: Æschere, Essocher

Spellings in Exon:

Forms in modern scholarship:

von Feilitzen head forms: Essocher

Phillimore edition: Essocher (TRE); Aeschere (1086)

Alecto edition: Essocher (TRE); Æschere (1086)

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 Sussex	Phil. ref. 13,17	Vill Chancton	DB Spelling Essocher	Holder 1066 Æschere 'of Chancton'	Lord 1066 Godwine, earl	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 William de Briouze	1086 Subtenant Richard 'the man of William de Briouze'	Fiscal Value 4.00	1066 Value 4.00	1086 Value 3.00	Confidence A	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value

Subtenant in 1086

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 Essex	Phil. ref. B3a	Vill Colchester	DB Spelling Ascere	Holder 1066 -	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 William, king	1086 Subtenant Æschere, burgess of Colchester	Fiscal Value 0.16	1066 Value 0.00	1086 Value 0.00	Confidence -	Map
Shire Suffolk	Phil. ref. 1,122f	Vill Ipswich	DB Spelling Ascere	Holder 1066 -	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 William, king	1086 Subtenant Æschere 'of Ipswich'	Fiscal Value 0.01	1066 Value 0.00	1086 Value 0.00	Confidence -	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value