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

Swet 8

Name

Summary

Swet 8 was a minor thegn who held two small estates in south Somerset TRE, assessed for a total of 1½ hides and ½ virgate and with a combined value of just over 28s. On one of these estates he was a dependent tenant of Muchelney church while the other was his part of lands held in parage with two other thegns.

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 Somerset	Phil. ref. 19,14	Vill Stoke sub Hamdon	DB Spelling -	Holder 1066 Swet 'of Moortown'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Robert, count of Mortain	1086 Subtenant Robert fitzIvo	Fiscal Value 0.63	1066 Value 0.67	1086 Value 0.67	Confidence B	Map
Shire Somerset	Phil. ref. 21,55	Vill Moortown	DB Spelling Suetth	Holder 1066 Swet 'of Moortown'	Lord 1066 Leofweard, abbot of Muchelney	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Roger de Courseulles	1086 Subtenant Ogis	Fiscal Value 1.13	1066 Value 1.00	1086 Value 1.00	Confidence A	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value

Profile

Swet 8’s largest estate was assessed at slightly more than a hide and was at Moortown, on a low ridge projecting into the western edge of the Somerset Levels. It was a subholding of the large manor of Drayton, whose centre lay towards the eastern end of the ridge and which was itself held by the Benedictine abbey at Muchelney, an island in the marshes across the River Isle from Drayton. DB records that Swet 8 ‘could not be separated from the church’ and that Moortown was ‘thegnland’, which implies that Swet 8 was an armed retainer of the abbey who had been granted this land for his maintenance. The abbey lost control of his estate at Moortown after the Conquest.

Given the extreme rarity of the name Swet, it is almost certain that Swet 8 was also the TRE holder of half a hide at Stoke sub Hamdon, lying about 7 miles to the south-east of Moortown. DB records only that an estate of nearly two hides at Stoke had been held by three thegns TRE, but Exon (at 267b2) names them as Ælfgeat, Swet and Alfred and gives the assessment for each holding. In addition, the TO (at 513a2) notes that two of the thegns had held their land in parage (indicating that it was impartible family land) and that their estates had been added to that of the third, who had also held in parage; but because the TO does not provide the names we cannot say speculate further on Swet 8’s possible familial connections.

The two estates of Swet 8 lay nearly 80 miles from the estate of Swet 7 in Devon, which is too far for them to have been held by the same person given the small sizes of the estates involved.