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Æthelbeorht 33

Name

Summary

Æthelbeorht 33 was variously described as the sokeman, the steward and the man of the abbot of Ely.  He held parts of three of the abbey’s manors TRE, with his holdings having a total assessment of 10 hides and a probable valuation of just over £10; he did not have the power of alienation over these lands.

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 Cambridgeshire	Phil. ref. 32,36	Vill Impington	DB Spelling -	Holder 1066 Æthelbeorht, steward of the abbot of Ely	Lord 1066 Wulfric, abbot of Ely	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Picot of Cambridge	1086 Subtenant Walter 'the man of Picot the sheriff'	Fiscal Value 2.25	1066 Value 2.67	1086 Value 2.00	Confidence A	Map
Shire Cambridgeshire	Phil. ref. 32,37	Vill Milton	DB Spelling Ailbertus	Holder 1066 Æthelbeorht, steward of the abbot of Ely	Lord 1066 Wulfric, abbot of Ely	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Picot of Cambridge	1086 Subtenant Ralph de Bans	Fiscal Value 6.75	1066 Value 6.75	1086 Value 3.94	Confidence A	Map
Shire Cambridgeshire	Phil. ref. 32,39	Vill Waterbeach	DB Spelling Albertus	Holder 1066 Æthelbeorht, steward of the abbot of Ely	Lord 1066 Wulfric, abbot of Ely	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Picot of Cambridge	1086 Subtenant Mucel 'of Waterbeach'	Fiscal Value 1.00	1066 Value 0.52	1086 Value 0.50	Confidence B	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value

Bibliography

The manors of Ely Abbey at Impington, Milton and Waterbeach lay close together near the edge of the Fens and are the only three places in Cambridgeshire where someone called Æthelbeorht or Albert was recorded as holding land TRE.  In two instances a spelling of the holder’s name shows it to have been Æthelbeorht and, given the close proximity of the lands concerned and the fact that all three were held in dependent tenure from Ely Abbey, it is almost certain that all three references are to one and the same person: Æthelbeorht 33.

At Milton, where Æthelbeorht 33 held 6 hides 3 virgates, the DB form Ailb’tus confirms the holder’s name to have been Æthelbeorht; he is described as the steward of the abbot of Ely and it is noted that he could not sell or alienate this land from the abbey, to whom it would revert after his death.

At Impington, DB records the TRE holders simply as ‘3 sokemen of the abbot of Ely’, but IE (fo 44v) names the one with the largest holding (2 hides 1 virgate) as Ailb’t’, i.e. Æthelbeorht; DB notes that ‘he could not sell’ the land.

The third of Æthelbeorht 33’s holdings was of 1 hide in the abbey’s manor of Waterbeach, where he was described as ‘the man of the abbot of Ely’ who could neither sell nor alienate this land from the church.  Although the DB spelling Alb’t’ could be expanded as Albertus and is normalized as Albert in both the Phillimore and Alecto editions, it is obvious that this must be the same Æthelbeorht who held other nearby lands from the abbey TRE.