Toli 9

Toli ‘of Oxhill’ (Warws.), fl. 1066
Male
CPL
4 of 5

Name

Toli
Toli 8
Toli 10

Summary

Toli 9 was an important median thegn in south Warwickshire who was also tenant of a manor on the great estate at Pershore near by in Worcestershire which Edward the Confessor gave to Westminster abbey. His four manors were assessed at 23 hides and worth £17 10s.

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
Warwickshire 18,12 Whatcote Toli Toli ‘of Oxhill’ - Hugh de Grandmesnil Roger 'the man of Hugh de Grandmesnil' 5.00 5.00 7.00 - Map
Warwickshire 18,5 Oxhill Toli Toli ‘of Oxhill’ - Hugh de Grandmesnil - 10.00 10.00 11.00 - Map
Warwickshire 18,6 Shrewley Toli Toli ‘of Oxhill’ - Hugh de Grandmesnil - 3.00 1.00 1.50 - Map
Worcestershire 8,15 North Piddle Toli Toli ‘of Oxhill’ Edwin, abbot of Westminster Gilbert Crispin, abbot of Westminster Urse d'Abetot 5.00 1.50 3.00 - Map
Totals

Profile

The three Warwickshire manors which passed from Toli to Hugh de Grandmesnil (40–42) can be assigned to the same person with a high degree of confidence. Common succession is often a persuasive factor in itself, and in this case it forms part of a wider pattern of antecessorial succession in the creation of Hugh’s fief: his acquisitions in Warwickshire and north Gloucestershire (and to a lesser extent along the western fringes of Northamptonshire) seem largely to have been based on his succession to Baldwin .

Among Toli 9’s manors, Oxhill (the most valuable) and Whatcote adjoin one another on streams which run down from the Edge Hill ridge to the Stour. Shrewley is some 15 miles to the north, on the other side of the Avon valley, 4 miles beyond Warwick.

North Piddle (Worcs.) (43) is assigned to Toli 9 with less confidence. It lay on (and is named from) the Piddle Brook upstream from Pershore, 20 miles from Shrewley and more like 30 from Oxhill. Such a distance does not rule out Toli 9 as its holder, given the value of his Warwickshire manors. The difficulty is that North Piddle did not pass to Hugh de Grandmesnil, though that is not fatal to the identification either.

North Piddle lay within the 200 hides of Pershore which Edward the Confessor gave to Westminster abbey, perhaps at the dedication of the new abbey church on 28 December 1065 (Harmer 1952: nos. 99–102 and pp. 291–2, 326–7, 330–1; Bates 1998: no. 295, pp. 888–9). Toli was subject to the same customary services that are mentioned throughout the Pershore estate as incumbent upon the free holders of the dependent manors: mowing the lord’s meadows for one day a year and doing all the other service that was demanded (Worcs. 8:1–28). Dependency on the Pershore estate must have pre-dated the grant to Westminster, making Toli a tenant initially of the king. It is conceivable that he was simply a local man (as some of the other Pershore tenants seem to have been). But some parts of Pershore certainly belonged to men from outside the area, notably Alfred of Marlborough (Alfred ) at Severn Stoke (8:26). Since there was an important Toli (Toli 9) within striking distance of Pershore, North Piddle has therefore been assigned to him.

Bibliography


Bates 1998: Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum: The Acta of William I (1066–1087), ed. David Bates (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998)

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