Trumwine 3

Trumwine ‘of Tattingstone’ (Suff.), fl. 1066
Male
DWP
4 of 5

Name

Trumwine

Summary

Trumwine 3 was a free man who held two tiny estates in south Suffolk TRE probably assessed for a total of about 78 acres with a value of 8s, although the figures are uncertain.  One of his estates was held in the lordship of King Edward (Edward 15),  although the nature of that lordship is unclear, and at the other it is likely that his commended lord was Skalpi 2.

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 30,1 Ringshall Trumuinus Trumwine 'of Tattingstone' Edward, king William brother of Roger d'Auberville - 0.15 0.15 0.15 C Map
Suffolk 36,9 Tattingstone Trumuinus Trumwine 'of Tattingstone' - Robert Gernon - 0.50 0.25 0.20 B Map
Totals

Profile

Trumwine 3 was one of two ‘commended free men’ (the other being Wulfsige) holding 120 acres at Tattingstone on the Shotley peninsula in south-east Suffolk.  The division of the land between the two men is unknown but DB notes that the men held the land ‘as two manors’, a formula that although it could that the men were dependent tenants (Roffe 1990: 162) is more likely to indicate that Trumwine’s manor had been combined with that of Wulfsige to form a single estate under the post-Conquest tenant-in-chief, Robert Gernon (Robert 53).

In either case, however, there is no need to presume that Trumwine and Wulfsige were directly connected with each other.  A possible note of caution is sounded by the presence of only one bordar on the two manors TRE, but it does not imply that this peasant’s household provided the workforce for both and hence a connection between them; it is more likely that Trumwine and/or Wulfsige and their households were directly involved in the day-to-day workings of their manors.  The two ploughs present TRE suggest that both manors were predominantly arable, with a share of the scant 2 acres of meadow being hardly enough to provide even for the oxen of the plough-teams.

DB does not record the name of the lord to whom these two men had been commended, this being the first of seven entries in which commendation is noted but the lord unnamed.  However, the immediately preceding entry names Skalpi 2 as the commended lord and Skalpi, a housecarl, was the main antecessor of Robert Gernon in Suffolk.  It is more likely than not, therefore, that the unnamed lord in these seven entries was Skalpi and that Robert had acquired the land of Trumwine and the others because these TRE holders had been commended to Robert’s antecessor.

There is only one other estate recorded in DB as being held TRE by someone called Trumwine and that was a tiny holding of 18 acres at Ringshall, further inland but less than 11 miles north-west of Tattingstone.  Given this relatively close proximity and the extreme rarity of the personal name (it is not otherwise recorded after the early eight century and the first element does not occur elsewhere in DB) it is probable that this too was held by Trumwine 3.  Although Trumwine’s lord at Ringshall was King Edward (Edward 15) – whether by commendation or by dependent tenure is unclear – and the holding did not pass to Robert Gernon after the Conquest, these considerations are not sufficient to counter the probability that Trumwine 3 held both Tattingstone and Ringshall TRE.

Bibliography


Roffe 1990: D. Roffe, ‘From thegnage to barony: sake and soke, title, and tenants-in-chief’, Anglo-Norman Studies 12 (1990), 157-76