Asmoth 2

Asmoth ‘of Wrabbatun’ (Suff.), fl. 1066
Female
DWP
4 of 5

Name

Asmoth

Summary

Asmoth 2 was a free woman with a small estate in east Suffolk TRE assessed at 100 acres and with a value of 8s, where she was under the commendation of Northmann; she also held with her son Beorhtmær a one-sixth share of a smaller estate assessed at 50 acres with a value of 8s, and where she was in the commendation of Toli 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 4,15 Middleton Esmoda Asmoth 'of Wrabbatun' Toli the sheriff Hugh, earl Roger Bigod 0.03 0.03 0.03 C Map
Suffolk 6,91 Uurabretuna Amod Asmoth 'of Wrabbatun' Northmann the sheriff Robert Malet - 0.25 0.20 0.20 C Map
Suffolk 7,11 Warabetuna - Asmoth 'of Wrabbatun' Northmann the sheriff Roger Bigod Robert Malet 0.25 0.12 0.18 D Map
Suffolk 7,11 Warabetuna - Asmoth 'of Wrabbatun' Northmann the sheriff Roger Bigod Northmann the sheriff 0.58 0.28 0.42 D Map
Totals

Profile

Asmoth 2’s little estate at Uurabretuna is one of a series of associated forms (Uurabetuna, Warabetuna, Wrabbatuna, Wrabetuna) left unidentified by the Phillimore and Alecto editions of DB and by Domesday Gazetteer (Rumble 1986: 3,15 Notes; Darby and Versey 1975: 417), although the place apparently lay in Blything Hundred in east Suffolk.  The DB forms point to an underlying Old English place-name Wrabba-tūn, which in their discussions of Wrabness, Essex, both Reaney (1935: 358) and Ekwall (1960: 537) identify as Rapton, Suffolk.  However, I have been unable to locate the ‘Rapton’ to which they refer, whether in Blything Hundred or elsewhere in Suffolk, or to find further evidence to support their identification, and therefore a location near the centre of Blything Hundred has been adopted here for mapping purposes.

The entry for the estate at Uurabretuna describes Asmoth as a free woman over whom Northmann the sheriff had the commendation, with her 30 acres being held by Robert 36 Malet in 1086 but being claimed by Roger 6 Bigod.  These details render it likely that she held more land in the same place, because another entry records 100 acres at Warabetuna held TRE by an unnamed woman also under Northmann’s commendation.  In this latter instance DB records that the estate was in two parts in 1086, with 30 acres held by Robert Malet as a manor and the remainder held by Northmann as the subtenant of Roger Bigod.  It is more likely than not that the 30 acres at Warabetuna were the same as the 30 acres at Uurabretuna (the details of estate resources and values in the two entries could support this), and therefore that Asmoth 2 had held the whole 100 acres TRE.

It is also probable that Asmoth 2 was the woman of that name occurring among the TRE holders of 50 acres at Middleton, in Blything Hundred and so presumably close to her other estate, because the name was rare and this is the only other occurrence of it in DB.  There are differences, however, because at Middleton she is described as in the commendation of Toli 2 the sheriff and the land was held by Earl Hugh 8 in 1086, albeit with Roger Bigod as the subtenant.  Yet Toli was Northmann’s predecessor as sheriff and both Roger and Robert held that office after the Conquest (Green 1990: 76), and the apparent differences need not outweigh the likelihood that the TRE holder recorded at both Wrabbatūn and Middleton was Asmoth 2.

If so, then we learn a little more about her from the entry regarding Middleton.  It states that six free ‘men’ held the land TRE but then names seven, with Asmoth and her son Beorhtmær having a one-sixth share of the land between them.  This strongly suggests that Asmoth was a widow and that she and her son were holding the share of the land at Middleton that had been held previously by her husband.  This need not imply that she held the land at Wrabbatūn in the same way, however, where the DB entries hint at a dispute concerning Asmoth’s estate because of some indirect association with the office of sheriff.

Bibliography


Darby and Versey 1975: H. C. Darby and G. R. Versey, Domesday Gazetteer (Cambridge, 1975)

Ekwall 1960: E. Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names, 4th edn (Oxford, 1960)

Green 1990: J. A. Green, English Sheriffs to 1154 (London, 1990)

Reaney 1935: P. H. Reaney, The Place-Names of Essex (Cambridge, 1935)

Rumble 1986: Domesday Book 34: Suffolk, ed. A. Rumble (Chichester, 1986), DB 3,15 Notes.