Gauti 5

Gauti ‘of Moulton’ (Norf.), fl. 1066x1086
Male
DWP
4 of 5

Name

Gauti
Gauti 4
Gauti 6

Summary

Gauti 5 and Eskil were two free men of King William (William 1) who in 1086 shared a minute holding in Norfolk with an assessment of just 2½ acres and a value of 2½d. It is highly probable that they had also held this land TRE, albeit then in the lordship of Aski the Priest (Aski), who was himself the man of the abbot of Hulme.

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

List of property and lordships associated with this name in DB

Tenant-in-Chief 1086 demesne estates (no subtenants)

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
Norfolk 65,13 Moulton St Michael Gouta Gouti 'of Moulton' Aski the priest Gauti, king's free man - 0.01 0.01 0.01 - Map
Totals

Profile

Despite its tiny size, the 2½ acre holding of Gauti 5 and Eskil at Moulton St Michael in south Norfolk was recorded among the lands of ‘the free men of the king’ in Little Domesday Book with no indication that they had any median lord in 1086. They may well represent survivors from the pre-Conquest period. Although the LDB entry is slightly ambiguous on this point, it seems very probable that Gauti and Eskil also held this land TRE, when they were free men in the lordship of Aski the Priest, who was himself the man of the abbot of Hulme, Ælfwald 74.

The holding of Gauti 5 and Eskil lay less than 15 miles from the almost equally tiny TRE holding of Gauti 6 at Chediston in north-east Suffolk. Despite the small size of these holdings they seem close enough for it to be possible that they were held by the same person, especially given the extreme rarity of the name Gauti. However, Gauti 6 was almost certainly in the lordship of Eadric 82 of Laxfield TRE and did not apparently survive through until 1086, whereas if Gauti 5 and Eskil were indeed already holding their land TRE then they were part of a different lordship. Furthermore, although the TRW holder of Gauti 6’s land at Chediston, Roger Bigod (Roger 6), was also the TRW tenant-in-chief for all of the other lands in Moulton St Michael held by freeman and sokemen TRE, the fact that Gauti 5 and Eskil were the exceptions to this and held their 2½ acres from King William (William 1) strengthens the suspicion that Gauti 5 and Gauti 6 were different people.

It is also highly unlikely that Gauti 5 was the same person currently listed in PASE as Gouti 1, who along with Earl Harold (Harold 3), Bishop Stigand (Stigand 1) and others featured in the Norfolk part of the witness-list to the will of Thurstan 9 in c.1044 (S 1531; Whitelock 1930: 80-5 no.31, 192-7), because it is improbable that a such a very small-scale landholder would feature amongst such high-status witnesses in a document of this kind.

Bibliography


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)