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Name
Summary
Distribution Map
Property List
Profile
Bibliography
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Beorn 13
Beorn ‘of Knowle’ (Dors.), fl. 1066
Male
DWP
4 of 5
Summary
Beorn 13 was a minor thegn who held an estate in south-east Dorset TRE assessed at 2 hides and with a value of 40s; his lord may have been Beorhtric 36.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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dorset | 41,2 | Church Knowle | Bern | Beorn 'of Knowle' | - | Walter de Claville | - | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | B | Map |
| Totals | ||||||||||||
Profile
Beorn 13’s TRE estate is called Cnolle in DB and is almost certainly to be identified with Barnston in Church Knowle, first recorded in the late thirteenth century but derived from Old English Beornes-tūn ‘Beorn’s estate’ (Mills 1977: 88). It lies on the southern slopes of the Purbeck Hills in south-east Dorset, and on a tributary stream of the Corfe River.Barnston lies more than 115 miles from any other estate held TRE by someone called Beorn and so no connection with any of those needs to be considered. Nevertheless, although his estate was fairly small Beorn was described as a thegn in the corresponding Exon entry (62a2).
By 1086 Beorn 13’s estate had passed to Walter de Claville (Walter 27), who often occurs as the successor to the estates of Beorhtric 36 son of Ælfgar and may well have done so in Dorset too (Williams 1997: 48 and n. 25). It is therefore possible that Beorn was under Beorhtric’s lordship, although not too much weight can be placed on the suggestion.
Bibliography
Mills 1977: A. D. Mills, The Place-Names of Dorset: Part I (Cambridge, 1977)
Williams 1997: A. Williams, ‘A West-Country magnate of the eleventh century: the family, estates and patronage of Beorhtric son of Ælfgar’, in Family Trees and the Roots of Politics: the Prosopography of Britain and France from the Tenth to the Twelfth Century, ed. K. S. B. Keats-Rohan (Woodbridge, 1997)