Orc 3

Orc Earl Harold’s man
Male
CPL
4 of 5

Name

Orc

Summary

Orc 3 was a small landowner in north Surrey who had 2 hides worth 20 shillings attached to Earl Harold’s manor of Merton, though they were not at Merton itself. He survived the Conquest on the same holding.

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
Surrey 1,5 Merton Orcus Orc, man of Earl Harold Harold, earl William, king Orc 2.00 1.00 1.00 A Map
Totals

Subtenant in 1086

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
Surrey 1,5 Merton Orcus Orc, man of Earl Harold Harold, earl William, king Orc 2.00 1.00 1.00 A Map
Totals

Profile

The name Orc (Latinized as Orcus) occurs only once in DB, as the holder both TRE and in 1086 of 2 hides ‘which always lay’ in the Surrey manor of Merton, Earl Harold’s in 1066 and King William’s after the Conquest. Although attached to the manor, Orc’s land was located ‘in another hundred’, i.e. not Brixton hundred. Merton was indeed a composite manor whose 20 hides and land for 21 ploughs must have included territory outside the historic parish quite apart from the houses in Southwark and 2 sulungs in Kent mentioned in the DB entry, since the parish covered rather less than 1,800 acres (VCH Surr. IV, 64).

Merton bordered two other hundreds, Kingston and Wallington, and it is possible that Orc’s 2 hides can be identified with the 2 hides of ‘Allmannesland’ in Mitcham parish (in Wallington hundred and bordering Merton on the east). That holding emerges only in the early fifteenth century, when it was held of Vauxhall manor (in Lambeth) (VCH Surr. IV, 233), but it must have been given with Vauxhall to the monks of Canterbury cathedral priory by the Black Prince in 1362, and Vauxhall had been carved out of royal estates in north Surrey for the Redvers family some time before 1216 (VCH Surr. IV, 55–6), perhaps adding other royal holdings like ‘Allmannesland’

The reasons for supposing that ‘Allmannesland’ had a much longer history than is readily apparent are that its ancient assessment in hides was known (which must mean that it was a distinct entity before the late twelfth century, when hidage ceased to be meaningful) and that its owners claimed rights in the north aisle of Mitcham parish church (VCH Surr. IV, 233). The 2 hides in question cannot be accounted for in any of the other holdings in Mitcham parish which were recorded in DB (Mitcham and Whitford: Surr. 5:5–7; 21:1–2; VCH Surr. IV, 230–3).

Earl Harold’s man Orc survived the Norman Conquest on his small Surrey holding, which he farmed with a single demesne plough in 1086. He was certainly distinct from the housecarl Orc, founder of Abbotsbury abbey in Dorset (Orc 1), who died before 1058 (Harmer 1952: nos. 1–2).

Bibliography


Harmer 1952: F. E. Harmer, Anglo-Saxon Writs (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1952)

VCH Surr.: The Victoria History of the Counties of England: The Victoria History of the County of Surrey, ed. H. E. Malden, 4 vols and index (London, 1902–14)