Genust 2

Genust ‘of Uffington’ (Salop.), fl. 1066
Male
CPL
4 of 5

Name

Genust

Summary

Genust 2 was a small landowner with two manors in central and south Shropshire, of at least 3¼ hides worth nearly £1, and perhaps significantly more.

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
Shropshire 4,21,14 Uffington Genut Genust 'of Uffington' - Roger, earl Helgot de Fourches 2.50 0.75 0.75 A Map
Shropshire 4,21,6 Holdgate Genust Genust 'of Uffington' - Roger, earl Helgot de Fourches 0.75 0.23 0.31 A Map
Totals

Profile

Although Holdgate and Uffington were some 20 miles apart with no easy direct route between them, they can confidently be assigned to the same person. First, the name (whatever it represents) occurs nowhere else, and it hard to believe that there were two men called Genust and Genut so close to one another. Secondly, a woman called Ælfgifu also held land at both places. Holdgate was held TRE as four manors by Genust, Alweard, Dunning, and Ælfgifu; Uffington as two manors by Genust and Ælfgifu. In the Uffington entry, the rest of the line after Ælfgifu’s name has been erased and left blank, with the continuation of the text on the next line also written over an erasure, an alteration that might have involved removing the names of other persons.

The fact that Genust was named first in both entries could be taken to indicate some kind of superior interest or tenure, and he may have had more than the 3¼ hides worth under £1 which are assigned to him on the basis of dividing Holdgate into four equal shares and Uffington into two. Their total hidage was 8 hides and total value 48s. In fact, they were larger holdings that those figures suggest, since Holdgate had land for 6 ploughs and Uffington for 12.

There are other hints of their significance. Uffington stood on the banks of the Severn, the first manor downstream from Shrewsbury, while Holdgate had been chosen before 1086 by Earl Roger’s baron Helgot as the location for his castle. The castle was mentioned in the DB entry and substantial earthworks survive of what is likely to be Helgot’s work (King 1983: II, 425). The place was called Stanton in 1086 but that name was supplanted in the twelfth century by the name Helgot’s Castle which evolved into Holdgate (a version of Helgot’s name) in modern times (PN Salop. I, 155–6). The precise location for the castle and accompanying church was doubtless chosen for its elevated position on a low spur projecting into Corvedale, but it is possible, too, that Helgot’s choice owed something to the significance of the place in Genust’s time.

Bibliography


King 1983: David J. Cathcart King, Castellarium Anglicanum: An Index and Bibliography of the Castles in England, Wales and the Islands, 2 vols (London: Kraus International Publications, 1983)

PN Salop. = Margaret Gelling with H. D. G. Foxall, The Place-Names of Shropshire, 5 vols (incomplete) English Place-Name Society 62/63, 70, 76, 80, and 82 (Nottingham: English Place-Name Society, 1990–2006)