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Earnwulf 6

Name

Summary

Earnwulf 6 was a free man with a tiny manor in east Suffolk TRE assessed at only 40 acres and of uncertain value TRE but worth 7s in 1086; his commended lord may have been Eadric of Laxfield (Eadric 113).

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 Suffolk	Phil. ref. 6,32	Vill Parham	DB Spelling Ernulfus	Holder 1066 Earnwulf 'of Parham'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Robert Malet	1086 Subtenant -	Fiscal Value 0.33	1066 Value 0.35	1086 Value 0.35	Confidence B	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value

Profile

Earnwulf 6’s tiny manor was among numerous small estates at Parham, where several streams drain from higher ground into the River Ore, a tributary of the River Alde in east Suffolk.  Several of these estates, including Earnwulf’s manor, passed after the Conquest to Robert Malet (Robert 36), one of whose main antecessors was Eadric of Laxfield (Eadric 113) (Fleming 1991: 113; Clarke 1994: 95).  When DB describes Earnwulf as ‘a free man by commendation’ without giving further details, therefore, the likely implication is that he was in the commendation of Eadric.

DB records that TRE, as in 1086, there was half a plough (presumably indicating a half-ploughteam of 4 rather than 8 oxen) and 1 acre of meadow.  If the latter was solely to provide fodder for the oxen this suggests that Earnwulf was engaged solely on arable farming, while the lack of reference to any dependent peasants suggests he and his household worked the land directly.  Caution is needed on both points, however, because DB is often far from complete in its record of such details.

Earnwulf’s manor was both tiny and more than 50 miles from any other held TRE by someone else with the same name, none of which passed to the same post-Conquest successor, and so despite the extreme rarity of that name there is no reason to consider Earnwulf 6 in connection with any other person or estate.

Bibliography

Clarke 1994: Peter A. Clarke, The English Nobility under Edward the Confessor (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994)

Fleming 1991: R. Fleming, Kings and Lords in Conquest England (Cambridge: University Press, 1991), p. 113.