Burgheard 10

Burgheard ‘of Stoke Ash’ (Suffolk), fl. 1066
Male
SDB
4 of 5

Name

Burgheard
Burgheard 6
Burgheard 11

Summary

Burgheard 10 was a sokemen of Abbot Baldwin of Bury St Edmund’s (Baldwin 5), who held 14 acres at Stoke Ash in Suffolk TRE.

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
Suffolk 14,146 Stoke Ash Bucardus Burgheard 'of Stoke Ash' Baldwin, abbot of Bury St Edmunds Baldwin, abbot of Bury St Edmunds - 0.12 0.15 0.15 E Map
Totals

Profile

An entry in the fee of Abbot Baldwin of Bury St Edmund’s (Baldwin 5) records that ‘In Stoke [Ash] Burgheard, a sokeman of the abbot, held TRE 14 acres, worth 3s.’ (LDB 371 (Suffolk 14,146)). Taken at face value, this would seem clearly to differentiate this sokeman from Burgheard, the lord of Mendlesham, identified as the son of Earl Ælfgar (Burgheard 6), even though the latter is known to have been lord by commendation of four anonymous free men in the same vill (LDB 286 (Suffolk 1,86)). It may be that the lord’s name shaped local nomenclature in this instance. However, the name is rare, so the presence of two Burgheards in the same vill is something of a coincidence. In addition, there are general grounds for doubting that Abbot Baldwin’s fee was an entirely objective statement of fact: in particular, this text of this fee attributes to the abbot unusually comprehensive rights of lordship (Baxter 2009: 415-7). For these reasons, one should perhaps hold open the possibility that the 14 acres in question were in fact held by Burgheard 6, though it remains marginally more likely than not that there were indeed two Burgheards named in connection with this vill.

Bibliography


Baxter 2009: S. Baxter, ‘Lordship and Justice in the Early English Kingdom: the Judicial Functions of Soke and Commendation Revisited’, in Early Medieval Studies in Memory of Patrick Wormald, ed. S. Baxter, C. Karkov, J. Nelson and D. Pelteret, Studies in Early Medieval Britain, general editor Nicholas Brooks (Farnham, 2009), pp. 383–419