Thorsten 37

Thorsten burgess of Thetford (Norf.), fl. 1066x1086
Male
CPL
4 of 5

Name

Thorsten
Thorsten 36
Thorsten 38

Summary

Thorsten 37, a burgess of Thetford also known as Thorsten of Thetford, was probably a major figure, controlling a sizeable suburban manor on the south side of Thetford and the rural manor which adjoined it, each of 2 carucates. He survived in 1086 as a tenant of the great East Anglian baron Roger Bigod, but exactly what he retained is not clear.

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
Norfolk 9,74 Great Snarehill Turstinus Thorsten, burgess of Thetford - Roger Bigod - 2.00 0.80 1.00 B Map
Totals

Lord 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
Norfolk 66,76 Great Snarehill Turstinus 1 free man Thorsten of Thetford Roger Bigod Thorsten of Thetford 0.13 0.06 0.06 B Map
Norfolk 66,77 Great Snarehill Turstinus 3 free men Thorsten of Thetford Roger Bigod Thorsten of Thetford 0.17 0.08 0.08 B Map
Totals

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
Norfolk 66,76 Great Snarehill - 1 free man Thorsten of Thetford Roger Bigod Thorsten of Thetford 0.13 0.06 0.06 B Map
Norfolk 66,77 Great Snarehill - 3 free men Thorsten of Thetford Roger Bigod Thorsten of Thetford 0.17 0.08 0.08 B Map
Norfolk 9,1 Thetford Turstinus - - Roger Bigod Thorsten of Thetford 0.00 1.60 1.60 A Map
Totals

Profile

Thorsten of Thetford can be identified by roundabout means as a figure of some significance in one of the largest towns of eastern England. The trail starts at the rural manor of Great Snarehill immediately outside Thetford, south of town and upstream on the right (Norfolk) bank of the Little Ouse, which in the eleventh century divided Norfolk from Suffolk and split the borough between the two shires. Thorsten, a free man (Turstinus liber homo), held it in 1066. It was assessed at 2 carucates and Thorsten had two ploughs and a slave, with another half plough worked by his six bordars. The demesne farm had 4 horses, 3 cattle, 12 pigs, and 80 sheep. It also included half a fishery. The matching half is nowhere recorded in DB but presumably lay across the river in Thetford, that is to say that the weirs stretched across the Little Ouse, with half the catch going to Thorsten’s rural manor on one bank, and half to some urban interest on the other.

In 1086 Great Snarehill was in the hands of the great East Anglian baron Roger Bigod, and its home farm was rather depleted of resources, but Thorsten himself seems to have survived, as is shown by the list of Bigod’s annexations and encroachments given at the end of the Norfolk folios. They included 4 free men at Great Snarehill. One of them had 15 acres ‘in the fief of Thorsten of Thetford’ (ad feudum Turstini de Tedfort); Bigod was evidently not entitled to this land because his antecessor (who can only be Thorsten) had only commendation over the man, not the soke, which belonged to the king’s manor of Kenninghall 12 miles distant to the east. Another three free men, sharing 20 acres, were also in the soke of Kenninghall but their commendation and foldsoke evidently also belonged to Thorsten. The two statements covering this little group of free men run on in the text and end with the assertion in the present tense that ‘Thorsten holds this’ (hoc tenet Turstinus), evidently applying to the annexed land as a whole (Norf. 66:76–7). Thorsten of Thetford was thus still alive in 1086; since he was holding the four freemen of Great Snarehill whom Roger Bigod had annexed, we can infer that he also held the main manor of Great Snarehill from Roger, even though DB does not name him as subtenant. That draws attention to the fact that although the resources of the manor were diminished since TRE (down by 1 demesne plough, 3 horses, 1 head of cattle, 12 pigs, and 20 sheep), the ‘value’ was higher: Bigod was evidently extracting more rent from Thorsten than Thorsten himself had taken in 1066.

The trail now leads into Thetford. In 1086 Roger Bigod had a substantial stake in what was essentially a royal borough. One entry in DB tells us that the part of the borough on the Norfolk side of the river was divided between the king and Bigod, the king having two thirds and Bigod one third (Norf. 1:70). Another entry describes what is presumably the same holding of Bigod’s, a rural manor of 2 carucates with two demesne ploughs, a flock of sheep 128 strong, a population mainly consisting of 20 bordars, and some other appurtenances. Besides slaves, meadow, and a church, the manor included ‘33 men in the borough, commended to him [Bigod], whom his antecessor held, in whom he [the antecessor] had nothing except the commendation’ (In burgo habet Rogerus .xxxiii. homines sibi commendatos quos tenuit suus antecessor . in quibus nichil preter commendationem habuit). The entry runs on: ‘He also has 1 mill which Thorsten the burgess (Turstinus burgensis) holds; he claims this as the king’s gift but the hundred does not know how; this mill is worth 32s.’ There are several points to note here. First, at 32s., the mill (one of several in Thetford in 1086: Norf. 1:70) was exceptionally valuable, unsurprisingly in so populous a town. Second, Thorsten the burgess is undoubtedly the same person as Thorsten of Thetford, who held from Bigod at Great Snarehill. Third, it is quite likely that Bigod’s unnamed antecessor on this manor was again Thorsten. Fourth, this suburban and partly agricultural manor, with its mill and meadow, clearly lay along the river: the mill here and the ½ fishery at Great Snarehill went together, indeed were probably physically linked structures.

Men in Domesday England who took the name of an important town for their byname tended to be wealthy individuals of great importance locally, men like Æthelnoth of Canterbury. This identification of Thorsten of Thetford, which has to go by inference because DB is notably reticent with its information, places him alongside such significant figures in urban society.