Sigmund 3

Sigmund tenant of William de Warenne in Norfolk and Essex (fl. 1086)
Male
CPL
4 of 5

Name

Sigmund
Sigmund 2
Sigmund 4

Summary

Sigmund 3 was a tenant of William de Warenne in Norfolk and Essex.

Distribution map of property and lordships associated with this name in DB

List of property and lordships associated with this name in DB

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
Essex 22,10 Peyton Simondus 1 free man - William de Warenne Sigmund 1.25 1.00 1.25 A Map
Norfolk 8,108 Houghton Simon Toki, antecessor of William de Warenne - William de Warenne Sigmund 1.00 1.04 1.30 A Map
Norfolk 8,33 Barwick Simon 1 free man Toki, antecessor of William de Warenne William de Warenne Sigmund 0.50 0.25 0.33 A Map
Norfolk 8,33 Barwick Simon 1 free man - William de Warenne Sigmund 0.50 0.25 0.33 A Map
Norfolk 8,33 Barwick Simon 1 free man Harold, earl William de Warenne Sigmund 0.50 0.25 0.33 A Map
Norfolk 8,37 Feltwell Simon 1 sokeman Wulfric, abbot of Ely William de Warenne Sigmund 1.00 1.00 1.00 A Map
Norfolk 8,38 Methwold Simon 4 free men Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury William de Warenne Sigmund 1.00 1.00 1.00 A Map
Norfolk 8,55 Rockland Simon Broddi 'of Rockland' - William de Warenne Sigmund 3.00 3.00 3.00 A Map
Norfolk 8,55 Rockland Simon 6 free men and 1 half-free man Broddi 'of Rockland' William de Warenne Sigmund 0.58 0.50 0.50 A Map
Norfolk 8,56 Rockland Simon 9 free men and 1 half-free man Edward, king William de Warenne Sigmund 1.45 3.55 3.55 A Map
Totals

Profile

William de Warenne had an undertenant named as Simon at five places in Norfolk (Norf. 8:33, 37–8, 55, 108) and as Simondus at one in Essex (Essex 22:10). They were widely scattered, nearly 80 miles between the furthest flung. Barwick and Houghton lay in the ‘good sands’ region of north-west Norfolk, Rockland (by far the largest manor) in mid Norfolk, Feltwell and Methwold in the south-west of the county between the Breckland and the Fens, and Peyton in the Stort valley in north-west Essex. The total assessment was a little over 10 carucates (hides in Essex), worth £12 12s. in 1086, of which Rockland accounted for over half on both counts. Simon in Norfolk and Simond in Essex are identified as the same person by the fact that the holdings at Barwick, Houghton, Rockland, Feltwell (all Norf.), and Peyton (Essex) passed in the twelfth century to the same family, the Rosays (Farrer 1923–5: III, 370–3). The family took its surname from Rosay (Seine-Inf., arr. Dieppe, cant. Bellencombre), a mile or two from the centre of the Warenne fief in Normandy at Bellencombre. They were descended in the male line from another 1086 tenant of the Warennes, Lambert (Loyd 1951: 86–7), not from Simon(d) (contra Farrer 1923–5: III, 371), though it is conceivable that they acquired Simon(d)’s manors by marriage to a daughter of his.

Simon(d)’s name does not represent the biblical name Simon or Simeon. That name seems not to have been used in Normandy except as adopted by monks such as Simeon, prior of Winchester and abbot of Ely (d. 1093), and perhaps the historian Symeon of Durham (with the caveat that the latter was not for certain a Norman). It was used by both laymen and secular clergy in Maine and Anjou (Bates 1998: nos. 166, 171, 173, 229, 274). In any case the final –d and the second declension suffix –us of Simondus in Essex distinguish his name from Simon, which was treated as third declension with the genitive Simonis.

Either Simon(d) originated on the Continent and had the CG name Sigemund; or he originated in England and had the Scandinavian name Sigmund. It is notable that the Rosays used personal names that were a little unusual in Norman terms (Lambert, Walkelin, and Baldwin), but there is still the stumbling block that Sigemund was not a Norman name at all. The factor which just tips the balance in favour of an English origin is the negative evidence that William de Warenne’s tenant is not recorded as a benefactor of his lord’s priory of Castle Acre, unlike Lambert de Rosay.

Bibliography


Bates 1998: Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum: The Acta of William I (1066–1087), ed. David Bates (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998)

Farrer 1925: William Farrer, Honors and Knights’ Fees: An Attempt to Identify the Component Parts of Certain Honors and to Trace the Descent of the Tenants of the Same Who Held by Knight’s Service of Serjeanty from the Eleventh to the Fourteenth Century, 3 vols (I and II London: privately printed, 1923–4; III Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1925)

Loyd 1951: Lewis C. Loyd, The Origins of Some Anglo-Norman Families, ed. Charles Travis Clay and David C. Douglas, Harleian Society 103 (1951); reprinted (Baltimore MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1975)