Top of page Name Summary Distribution Map Property List Profile Bottom of page

Wifari 2

Name

Summary

Wifari 2 was a moderately well-off thegn with three manors straddling the boundary between Staffordshire and Shropshire, altogether assessed at 8½ hides and worth £3 5s.

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
Shire Shropshire	Phil. ref. 4,17,3	Vill Ryton	DB Spelling Wiuar	Holder 1066 Wifari 'of Bobbington'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Roger, earl	1086 Subtenant Osbern fitzRichard	Fiscal Value 2.50	1066 Value 0.75	1086 Value 0.50	Confidence B	Map
Shire Staffordshire	Phil. ref. 11,43	Vill Bobbington	DB Spelling Wifare	Holder 1066 Wifari 'of Bobbington'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Robert of Stafford	1086 Subtenant Helgot de Fourches	Fiscal Value 5.00	1066 Value 2.00	1086 Value 2.00	Confidence B	Map
Shire Staffordshire	Phil. ref. 12,26	Vill Rushall	DB Spelling Wiuara	Holder 1066 Wifari 'of Bobbington'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 William fitzAnsculf	1086 Subtenant Thorkil of Warwick	Fiscal Value 1.00	1066 Value 0.50	1086 Value 0.50	Confidence B	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value

Profile

What links these three estates is the rarity of the personal name and their concentration within a fairly short stretch of English Mercia. The largest and most central of the three places, Bobbington, stood on the watershed between the Severn and its eastern tributary the Stour, with Ryton some 8 miles to the north in the valley of the Worfe, and Rushall some 15 miles to the north-east. It is notable that both the Staffordshire entries say that Wifari held the manor ‘with sake and soke’, a formula which occurs only about a dozen times in the returns for the shire and indicates the privileged position of their holder. Wifari was the only landowner at both places, whereas at Ryton he and Beorhtweald held two manors. Wifari was named first, and Beorhtweald, whose only holding this seems to be, presumably had some kind of subordinate tenure.

The three manors went to different tenants-in-chief after the Conquest, a redistribution which does not affect the identification of Wifari 2 because each of the great fiefs in question was constructed on a geographical rather than a tenurial basis.