Ealdwine 18

Ealdwine ‘of East Harptree’ (Som.), fl. 1066x1086
Male
CPL
4 of 5

Name

Ealdwine
Ealdwine 17
Ealdwine 19

Summary

Ealdwine 18 was a middling thegn with four manors grouped around the Mendip Hills of north Somerset, assessed at 12 hides and worth £6 5s. TRE. He survived in 1086 as a king’s thegn holding one of them, 1¾ hides worth 25s.

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
Somerset 19,37 East Harptree Alduin Ealdwine 'of East Harptree' - Robert, count of Mortain Robert fitzWalter 5.00 2.00 2.00 B Map
Somerset 21,79 Shipham Alduin Ealdwine 'of East Harptree' - Roger de Courseulles Robert 'the man of Roger de Courseulles' 4.00 2.00 1.50 B Map
Somerset 46,25 Ston Easton Alduinus Ealdwine 'of East Harptree' - unnamed wife of Manasses the cook - 1.25 1.00 1.00 B Map
Somerset 47,16 Chew Stoke Aldui Ealdwine 'of East Harptree' - Ealdwine, king's thegn - 1.75 1.25 1.25 D Map
Totals

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
Somerset 47,16 Chew Stoke Aldui Ealdwine 'of East Harptree' - Ealdwine, king's thegn - 1.75 1.25 1.25 D Map
Totals

Profile

Four manors closely set within a space of 12 miles along and near the northern edge of the Mendip Hills in north Somerset were associated in three cases with the name Alduin(us), which certainly represents Ealdwine, and in one with Aldui, which might do so, for reasons given below. The three that certainly belonged to Ealdwine were Shipham, East Harptree, and Ston Easton. Shipham was entirely in his hands and formed, to judge from the later parish boundaries, an elongated territory stretching from the western slopes of Mendip high on to the summit. Seven miles along the summit and down the north-facing escarpment was East Harptree, where Ealdwine had 5 hides of the 10-hide vill and an exact half share of the arable (land for 5 ploughs), meadow (40 acres), pasture (8 × 5 furlongs), and perhaps woodland (if his 4 × 2½ furlongs was the equivalent of the other holding of 60 acres) (Som. 5:9). Five miles further east, on the lower ground below the Mendips, Ealdwine had a smaller manor at Ston Easton, the second largest of three in the vill (Som. 5:59; 42:3).

None of Ealdwine’s three manors was more than 9 miles from Chew Stoke, situated to their north in the upper Chew valley. DB named its holder in 1086 as the king’s thegn Aldui, saying that ‘the same man held it himself (idem ipse tenebat)’ TRE. GDB here follows the spelling in Exon (Exon 492a3), which ought to represent the name Ealdwig, but the corresponding entry in the geld account for Chew hundred gives the name as Alduinus, that is Ealdwine (IG: 81). The second elements –wig (usually spelled –ui or –uius) and –wine (usually spelled –uin or –uinus) were very easy to confuse, and either name could in reality stand for the other.

The proximity of ‘Ealdwig’s’ Somerset manor to Ealdwine’s three tips the balance in thinking, first, that IG was right in calling the holder of Chew Stoke Ealdwine, second, that the scribe of Exon (followed by GDB) misread the name and wrote it as if it were Ealdwig, and third, that Ealdwine of Chew Stoke was the same as at the three nearby manors.

Ealdwine thus identified was a well established thegn whose lands were assessed at 12 hides and worth £6 5s. His retention in 1086 of only one of the smaller manors was typical of English survivors. On balance this group of four places, which included two quite large manors, looks distinct from the other Ealdwines to the north-east in the Cotswolds (Ealdwine 17) and to the south in Dorset and Hampshire (Ealdwine 19 and Ealdwine 20).