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Sigmund 4

Name

Summary

Simond was the only undertenant in 1086 of the minor Lincolnshire tenant-in-chief Heppo the crossbowman, holding two manors of 4 carucates worth £3, about a fifth of the totals for Heppo’s fief (Lincs. 61:1–10).

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
Shire Lincolnshire	Phil. ref. 61,4	Vill Hanthorpe	DB Spelling Simund	Holder 1066 Thorfridh 'of Lincolnshire'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Heppo the crossbowman	1086 Subtenant Sigmund	Fiscal Value 1.00	1066 Value 1.00	1086 Value 1.50	Confidence A	Map
Shire Lincolnshire	Phil. ref. 61,7	Vill Timberland	DB Spelling Simund	Holder 1066 Healfdene 'of Kirkby'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Heppo the crossbowman	1086 Subtenant Sigmund	Fiscal Value 3.00	1066 Value 1.00	1086 Value 1.50	Confidence A	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value

Profile

Simond was the only undertenant in 1086 of the minor Lincolnshire tenant-in-chief Heppo the crossbowman, holding two manors of 4 carucates worth £3, about a fifth of the totals for Heppo’s fief (Lincs. 61:1–10). Simund probably lived at Hanthorpe, adjacent to Heppo’s most valuable manor, since in 1086 it had only a demesne plough and no recorded tenants, whereas his estate at Timberland was inhabited by 11 sokemen and a bordar, though Simund had ½ plough there too. The places were about 25 miles apart along the edge of the Holland Fens.

Simond’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 would not appear if the name were Simon.

Heppo’s name, perhaps a diminutive of a CG name in Heb– (cf. Hepselinus, fl. 1119: Morlet 1968: 128), was exceedingly rare, which means that more likely than not he was identical with the Heppo fitzAzo who occurs in charters of the abbey of Holy Trinity at Rouen in the 1050s and earlier 1060s and whose family was connected with the count of Evreux (Fauroux 1961: nos. 135, 201, 221; Keats-Rohan 1999: 248). That makes Heppo a Norman. But Simond (because of his name) cannot have been a Norman and (because he was the only tenant of a small Norman tenant-in-chief) is not likely to have come from elsewhere on the Continent. That makes him more likely than not English, with the Scandinavian name Sigmund.

Bibliography

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

Fauroux 1961: Marie Fauroux, Recueil des actes des ducs de Normandie (911–1066), Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de Normandie, 36 (Caen, 1961)

Keats-Rohan 1999: K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday People: A Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents 1066–1166, I: Domesday Book (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1999)

Morlet 1968: Marie-Thérèse Morlet, Les Noms de personne sur le territoire de l’ancienne Gaule du VI^e au XII^e siècle, I: Les noms issus du germanique continental et les creations gallo-germaniques (Paris: Editions de Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1968)