Topi 3

Topi ‘of Kirmington’ (Lincs.), fl. c. 1030x1066
Male
DWP
4 of 5

Name

Topi
Topi 4

Summary

Topi 3 had 2 bovates in north Lincolnshire TRE assessed worth 40s. He was probably a kinsman of Abbot Brand of Peterborough (Brand 2), and was the husband of Eadgifu; their sons Ulf and Halfdan were also landholders TRE. It is likely that Topi 3 died within a year or so of the Conquest.

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
Lincolnshire 25,5 Kirmington Tope Topi 'of Kirmington' - Hugh fitzBaldric Hamelin 'of Croxton' 0.25 2.00 1.50 C Map
Totals

Profile

Topi 3’s manor was the smallest of four estates at Kirmington, towards the northern end of the Lincolnshire Wolds; by far the largest of the four estates constituted sokeland of Caistor manor, with the other two being closer to Topi’s in extent.

This was the only estate in Lincolnshire attributed to someone with the extremely rare name Topi but the name does occur as the patronymic of two other Lincolnshire landholders TRE. One of these was Halfdan, who as Aldene tope occurs as the TRE holder of Bigby, 4 miles to the south-west of Kirmington, and whose estates in north Lincolnshire included Ulceby, less than 2 miles to the north. Given this proximity and the extreme rarity of the name, it is more than likely that Topi 3 was Halfdan’s father. If so, then Topi was probably a close relative of Abbot Brand of Peterborough (Brand 2), because the mid-twelfth-century Chronicle of Hugh Candidus describes Halfdan as propinquus ‘kinsman’ of Abbot Brand, one of whose several brothers was himself later abbot (Mellows 1949: 69, 71, 86; Knowles et al. 1972: 60).

The same Chronicle notes Halfdan’s brother as Vlfe filius Tope, who must surely be Ulf who occurs in DB as Vlf topesune in an entry among the Lincolnshire Clamores relating to estates that Ulf had sold to the archbishop of York. The details of that entry identify him as the Ulf who with his wife wrote a will before their pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1066x1069, which in turn also probably identifies him as the TRE holder of another of the small estates at Kirmington (Whitelock 1930: 94-7, 207-12; Pelteret 1990: 89-90). This Ulf, a significant Lincolnshire landholder TRE, may well have been in the patronage of the earls of Mercia (Baxter 2007: 267, 295). His will includes bequests to Ulf’s brother Halfdan and to his mother, who can be identified from DB as Eadgifu, but it does not mention his father Topi who was presumably dead by this time.

Given the likely kinship between Topi’s family and that of Abbot Brand it is probable that Topi 3 is the same as the Topi 1 inferred from the patronymic of Ulf 28, who as Ulf filius Topi witnessed King William I’s confirmation of lands in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire to Peterborough Abbey in 1066x1067 (Bates 1998: no.216). It is also likely that he is the same as the Tofi 2 inferred from the patronymic of Ulf 19, who as Ulf filius Tofi minister witnessed a similar but probably spurious confirmation to the abbey by King Edward 15 in 1055x1060 (S 1060; Kemble 1846: 139-40, no.806). This latter instance may result from the substitution of the common name Tofi for the rare one Topi on the part of the twelfth-century copyist or forger.

Drawing these threads together it is probable that, as the father of two mature sons in 1066, Topi 3 had been born in or conceivably even before the early eleventh century and was fairly old by the time of the Conquest, which he survived by only a year or so. To judge by the estates held by his wife and sons TRE (Clarke 1994: 354-5), Ulf’s possible connection with the Mercian earls together with the familial association with Abbot Brand of Peterborough, Topi 3 was part of a well-connected and prosperous local family and the tiny manor attributed to him in DB may represent lands to which he retired.

Although his name was extremely rare there is no reason to consider Topi 3 with any other TRE landholder of that name, all of whose estates lay many miles away from Lincolnshire.

Bibliography


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

Baxter 2007: S. Baxter, The Earls of Mercia: Lordship and Power in Late Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford, 2007)

Clarke 1994: P. A. Clarke, The English Nobility Under Edward the Confessor (Oxford, 1994)

Kemble 1846: J. M. Kemble, ed., Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici, vol. 4 (London, 1846)

Knowles et al.: D. Knowles, C. N. L. Brooke and V. C. M. London, The Heads of Religious Houses: England and Wales 940-1216 (Cambridge, 1972),

Mellows 1949: The Chronicle of Hugh Candidus, a Monk of Peterborough, ed. W. T. Mellows, ed (London, New York and Toronto, 1949)

Pelteret 1990: D. A. E. Pelteret, Catalogue of English Post-Conquest Vernacular Documents (Woodbridge, 1990)

S: P. H. Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters: An Annotated List and Bibliography, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks 8 (London, 1968), revised by S. Kelly, R. Rushforth et al., The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, published online through Kemble: The Anglo-Saxon Charters Website, currently at http://www.esawyer.org.uk/about/index.html

Whitelock 1930: Anglo-Saxon Wills, ed. D. Whitelock (Cambridge, 1930)