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Morfari 3

Name

Summary

Morfari 3 was a small landowner in east Cheshire whose third of a virgate was worth just 2 shillings.

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 Cheshire	Phil. ref. 26,1	Vill Somerford Booths	DB Spelling Morfar	Holder 1066 Morfari 'of Somerford Booths'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Hugh, earl	1086 Subtenant Tezelin Somerford Booths'	Fiscal Value 0.08	1066 Value 0.10	1086 Value 0.07	Confidence -	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value

Profile

The small vill of Somerford Booths on the upper Dane in the poor countryside of east Cheshire was assessed at just 1 virgate but was explicitly divided into three parts among the three men named as TRE holders. Morfari ‘could not withdraw from his lord’ (non poterat recedere a dominio suo), but whether his lord was one of the other two men (Hrafsnvartr and Ketil) or some other unnamed person is impossible to say. Somerford Booths had land for three ploughs in 1086, and presumably Morfari was farming one ploughland TRE, in effect a peasant who was liable to pay geld. He was the only landowner in Cheshire whose inability to alienate his land was mentioned, when most Cheshire landowners (like Hrafnsvartr and Ketil) were described as free men (libri homines).

Such a small landowner as Morfari 3 is clearly not to be identified with the richer Morfari in Yorkshire.