Wiglaf 8

Wiglaf ‘of Preston’ (Buckinghamshire), fl. 1066
Male
DWP
4 of 5

Name

Wiglaf

Summary

Wiglaf 8 was a moderately wealthy thegn with four manors in north-west Buckinghamshire TRE, together assessed for a total of 34 hides with a value of £12 12s. He was the man of Earl Leofwine (Leofwine 69), probably by commendation, and was himself the lord of a burgess in Buckingham.

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
Buckinghamshire 4,30 Shalstone Wilaus Wiglaf 'of Preston' - Odo, bishop of Bayeux - 2.00 1.60 0.60 C Map
Buckinghamshire 4,34 Lenborough Wilaf Wiglaf 'of Preston' Leofwine, earl Odo, bishop of Bayeux Ernulf de Hesdin 7.00 4.00 3.00 C Map
Buckinghamshire 4,35 Preston Bissett Wilaf Wiglaf 'of Preston' Leofwine, earl Odo, bishop of Bayeux Ansgot de Rots 15.00 4.00 5.00 A Map
Buckinghamshire 4,37 Barton Hartshorn Wilaf Wiglaf 'of Preston' Leofwine, earl Odo, bishop of Bayeux Ernulf de Hesdin 10.00 3.00 14.00 B Map
Buckinghamshire B10 Buckingham Wilaf Wiglaf 'of Preston' - William, king - 0.00 0.01 0.01 - Map
Buckinghamshire B10 Buckingham Wilaf Wiglaf 'of Preston' - William, king Ernulf de Hesdin 0.00 0.10 0.10 - Map
Totals

Profile

Wiglaf was a rare name in pre-Conquest England and it occurs only five times in DB. All of these occurrences relate to places less than 4 miles apart from each other in north-west Buckinghamshire. In three instances Wiglaf was described as the man or thegn of Earl Leofwine (Leofwine 69) and in all five instances the properties passed to Bishop Odo (Odo 3) or his subtenants after the Conquest. Given this rarity of personal name, the very close geographical proximity of the properties concerned, the associations with a particular pre-Conquest lord and post-Conquest successor, and the further fact that three of the manors were substantial ones, it is very probable that all five occurrences of Wiglaf in DB all relate to the same pre-Conquest holder, Wiglaf 8.

Wiglaf 8’s largest manor was at Preston Bissett, among streams draining down from a small upland to the Padbury Brook, a tributary of the River Ouse. In DB the manor was called simply Prestone, from Old English preost(a)-tūn ‘estate of the priest(s) or cleric(s)’, and this name implies that it was once held by a minster or similar church. It was clearly in secular hands by 1066, however, when Wiglaf held it as the man of Earl Leofwine and ‘could sell’ (vende’ potuit), a phrase indicating that he had power of alienation over the estate and therefore was not a dependent tenant. In 1086 this Preston estate was held by Odo’s subtenant Ansgot (Ansgot) de Rots.

The other two substantial manors held by Wiglaf 8 TRE were at Barton Hartshorn and Lenborough, respectively 1½ and 2½ miles to the north-west and north-east of Preston, each of which passed to Odo’s subtenant Ernulf (Ernulf) de Hesdin after the Conquest. Ernulf also acquired ‘a burgess of Wiglaf’ in Buckingham, 1½ miles to the north of Lenborough, which strongly implies not only that Wiglaf 8 had been this burgess’s lord TRE but also that Wiglaf was the real holder of the property in Buckingham and that the burgess was his tenant. It would, after all, make sense and be expected for an obviously important local landholder to have a presence in the nearest administrative and market centre.

The fourth and smallest of Wiglaf’s manors was of 2 hides at Shalstone, roughly 4 miles to the north of Preston. By 1086 Bishop Odo had merged this with a manor held TRE by one Godric (Godric) – probably to be identified as ‘Godric the sheriff’ (Palmer et al. 2007: DB Buckinghamshire 4,30 Notes) – but there is no obvious reason to assume a pre-Conquest association between Wiglaf and Godric.

The DB entries for Shalstone and Barton describe Wiglaf as a thegn – not unsurprisingly, given the size of his estates – and for all four of his manors he is accorded the power of alienation. When in the entries for the manors at Lenborough, Preston and Barton he is described as the man or thegn of Earl Leofwine, therefore, it is to be assumed that Wiglaf was in the earl’s lordship by commendation and not dependent tenure.

Bibliography


Palmer et al. 2007: J. Palmer, F. Thorn, C. Thorn and N. Hodgson, eds., Electronic Edition of Domesday Book: Translation, Databases and Scholarly Commentary (Colchester, 2007)