Land 2

Land ‘of Wymington’ (Beds.), fl. 1066
Male
DWP
4 of 5

Name

Land

Summary

Land 2 held two estates in north-west Bedfordshire TRE assessed for a total of 3¾ hides.

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
Bedfordshire 32,6 Wymington Lant Land 'of Wymington' Leofnoth son of Osmund Walter the Fleming Osbert 'of Totternhoe' 3.00 3.00 2.25 C Map
Bedfordshire 57,7 Wymington Lant Land 'of Wymington' - 5 brothers and their mother - 0.75 0.75 0.15 C Map
Totals

Profile

Land 2’s estates were both at Wymington in north-west Bedfordshire, where the main settlement is in a slight hollow between two feeders of a minor tributary of the River Nene. The largest was of 3 hides and Land 2 held it TRE under the lordship of Leofnoth, a king’s thegn. DB describes Land as Leofnoth’s man and was probably his dependent tenant here, because nothing is said about Land having the power of alienation and this part of DB is usually reliable in recording such things.

For his other estate at Wymington, however, Land 2 clearly did have the power of alienation, because DB states that he ‘could give and sell it’. This estate was smaller than that he held under Leofnoth, being only 3 virgates, and in 1086 it was held by Land’s wife and their five sons ‘from her dowry’.

It is possible but unlikely that Land 2 was the same person as Lanc 2, a substantial landholder in central-southern England TRE. The possibility arises because Land’s name is spelled Lant in DB and scribal confusion of ‘t’ and ‘c’ was by no means uncommon (Dodgson 1987: 128, 136). In favour of the identification are that both Land and Lanc are otherwise unrecorded names and it would simplify matters if by dint of a scribal error they could be regarded as one and the same, while the less than 60 miles that separated the nearest of Lanc 2’s estates from Wymington are perhaps not too far removed given Lanc 2’s wealth. Against this identification, however, are that the two men had different lords TRE and that the scribal error would need to be repeated in both of the DB entries relating to Land 2. On balance, therefore, it is unlikely that they were the same person.

Bibliography


Dodgson 1987: J. McN. Dodgson, ‘Domesday Book: place-names and personal names’, in Domesday Studies, J. C. Holt (Woodbridge, 1987), pp. 121-37