Beorhtfrith 23

although the possibility of a more recent re-assessment is raised by the Exon entry (245a4), which gave the value as 5s rather than 10s.
Male
DWP
4 of 5

Name

Beorhtfrith
Beorhtfrith 22
Beorhtfrith 24

Summary

Beorhtfrith ‘of Bridge’ held an estate in Devon TRE that was assessed at 3 virgates and valued at 5s; by 1086 it was held by his nephew Sæwine, Queen Matilda’s priest.

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
Cornwall 5,4,11 Caradon Brihferd Beorhtfrith 'of Caradon' - Robert, count of Mortain Thurstan the sheriff 0.25 0.50 0.50 B Map
Totals

Profile

Three of the four TRE landholders called Beorhtfrith held lands in south-western England but these estates were relatively small, lay at least 45 miles from each other and were held by different successors in 1086, so it does not seem probable that they could have been held by the same person TRE. 

The estate held TRE by Beorhtfrith 24 at Swimbridge in north-west Devon had passed to Sæwine the priest by 1086, which at first sight would seem to explain why it is entered in DB among the entries of ‘What the clergy hold from the king’. However, a potentially more complex picture is revealed by the additional information about Beorthfrith 24 and his successor Sæwine that is provided by the corresponding entries in Exon DB (194b1), TO (498a7) and IG (66a1). 

Both Exon and the TO record that Queen Matilda (Matilda 2) had granted this manor to Sæwine (described in Exon as ‘the queen’s priest’) in alms but also state that Beorthfrith was Sæwine’s uncle, suggesting that this familial relationship played a part in Sæwine’s succession. Exon adds that Beorhtfrith 24 had held Swimbridge in parage (implying this was family land) and ‘could go to whichever lord he would’, indicating non-dependent tenure and freedom to alienate. Yet it is probable that Swimbridge was originally part of the royal manor of South Molton and the IG implies that the geld liability lay with the clergy of South Molton minster in the 1080s, while the fact that details were recorded in the TO suggests that the tenure of Swimbridge was disputed in 1086. It may be, therefore, that Swimbridge had been alienated from the endowment of South Molton minster by Beorhtfrith or his predecessors and that Queen Matilda had sought to resolve this by granting what was technically a part of a royal estate to her priest Sæwine in alms at some point prior to her death in 1083, but that the clergy of South Molton were still trying to regain their former lands in 1086. This interpretation need not imply that Beorhtfrith 24 had also been a priest, although this is of course possible.

Beorhtfrith 24 is here given the byname ‘of Bridge’ because his estate was so called in DB (from Old English brycg ‘bridge, causeway’), referring to where the road between South Molton and Barnstaple crossed a tributary of the Taw. In the modern name Swimbridge, the earlier name has apparently been compounded with that of Sæwine, the TRW holder (Gover et al. 1931-2: 2 350; Watts 2004).

Bibliography


Gover et al. 1931-2: J. E. B. Gover, A. Mawer and F. M. Stenton, The Place-Names of Devon, 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1931-2)

Thorn and Thorn 1985: Domesday Book 9: Devon, ed. C. Thorn and F. Thorn (Chichester, 1985)

Watts 2004: The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, ed. V. Watts (Cambridge, 2004)