Colbrand 4

Colbrand ‘of Malton’ (Yorks.), fl. 1066
Male
DWP
4 of 5

Name

Colbrand
Colbrand 5

Summary

Colbrand 4 held two manors in the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire TRE; their total assessment is not certain but perhaps amounted to 4¼ carucates with a value of 20s.

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
Yorkshire 1N66 Malton Colebrand Colbrand 'of Malton' - William, king - 3.00 0.50 0.25 C Map
Yorkshire 29E30 Leavening Colbrand Colbrand 'of Malton' - 2 king's thegns - 1.25 0.50 0.38 C Map
Totals

Profile

The larger of Colbrand 4’s manors was at Maltune (now Old Malton), by an important crossing of the River Derwent that here divides the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire.  This was one of five estates recorded at Old Malton in DB and there is no obvious connection between Colbrand and any of the other TRE holders.  The DB entry also records 2 bovates that were regarded as sokeland of Colbrand’s manor, but these have not yet been identified or located.

Given the moderate size of this manor and the extreme rarity of the name Colbrand in contemporary sources it is probable that he was the same as the Colbrand who, with three others, held four manors at Leavening, on the western edge of the Wolds in the East Riding and less than 6 miles to the south of Old Malton.  The division of the DB assessment of 5 carucates between the four Leavening manors is not known, but if it was an equal one then Colbrand’s manor would have been of 1¼ carucates with a value of 10s TRE.

The rarity of Colbrand’s name invites consideration that he could be identified with the only other person of that name known from pre-Conquest Yorkshire.  One Colbrand ce’ occurs among a list of ‘Ælfric’s festermen’ (Stevenson 1912: 12-13; Farrer 1914: 27-8); the significance of the qualifying ce’ has not been established, although von Feilitzen (1937: 306n) took it to represent clericus.  Stevenson identified the ‘Ælfric’ of the list with Ælfric 105, archbishop of York 1023-1051, and argued that the list should be dated earlier rather than later in this period, whereas Farrer pointed out that this identitification with Ælfric 105 was by no means secure and that the presence of other apparently identifiable people such as Mærleswein 1 in the list would require a later dating; a date of c.1050 is adopted here, although clearly this remains open to challenge.  These uncertainties do not allow an identification between Colbrand 4 and the Colbrand ce’ of the list to be made with any confidence.  Yet Farrer also observes that most of the identifiable toponymic bynames and people in the list suggest a focus on the Sherburn and Snaith districts of Yorkshire; and, since Old Malton lies close to Sherburn, this could add weight to such an identification.  The matter is left open here.

No other instance of the name Colbrand is known from pre-Conquest England north of Chester and so there is no reason to consider Colbrand 4 in connection with anyone else.

Bibliography


Farrer 1914: Early Yorkshire Charters: I, ed. W. Farrer (Edinburgh, 1914)

Stevenson 1912: W. H. Stevenson, ‘Yorkshire surveys and other eleventh-century documents in the York Gospels’, English Historical Review 27 (1912), 1-25

von Feilitzen 1937: Olof von Feilitzen, The Pre-Conquest Personal Names of Domesday Book, Nomina Germanica 3 (Uppsala: Almqvist and Wiksells, 1937)