Uhtræd 18

Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland
Male
SDB
4 of 5

Name

Uhtræd
Uhtræd 17
Uhtræd 19

Summary

Uhtræd 18 was a major landowner TRE in the North Riding of Yorkshire, especially in Cleveland, the district which provided his and his father’s byname. As well as three distinct clusters of manors in that riding, he had a few scattered manors there and in the East Riding, and what was perhaps a substantial urban estate in York. The total assessment of his lands in 1066 was around 136 carucates, with lordship over another 14 carucates, though the values given in DB amounted to only £15. Uhtræd survived the Conquest, primarily as a king’s thegn holding manors which he had not had TRE, but also retaining three of his old manors (two from the king and one from Robert, count of Mortain). In all he had 58½ carucates in 1086, worth a meagre £9 or so, and was one of the better provided English survivors, not only in Yorkshire. Uhtræd was a benefactor of Whitby priory, a new Norman foundation.

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 1E28 Little Kelk Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - William, king - 2.00 0.20 0.20 - Map
Yorkshire 29N12 Newsham Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - 1.25 0.08 0.13 - Map
Yorkshire 5E32 Lockington Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain Nigel Fossard 1.58 1.00 0.25 - Map
Yorkshire 5E40 Neswick Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain Nigel Fossard 4.50 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 5E41 Neuson Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain Nigel Fossard 1.00 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 5N11 Seaton Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain Richard de Sourdeval 3.00 0.50 0.50 - Map
Yorkshire 5N12 Stainton Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain Richard de Sourdeval 0.88 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 5N13 Moorsholm Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain Richard de Sourdeval 3.50 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 5N14 Little Moorsholm Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain Richard de Sourdeval 1.00 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 5N15 Kilton Thorpe Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain - 1.50 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 5N16 Kilton Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain - 1.00 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 5N17 Brotton Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain Richard de Sourdeval 12.00 1.00 0.67 - Map
Yorkshire 5N18 Skelton Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain Richard de Sourdeval 13.00 2.00 0.80 - Map
Yorkshire 5N19 Guisborough Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain - 25.00 2.00 0.80 - Map
Yorkshire 5N20 Tocketts Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain Richard de Sourdeval 2.00 0.27 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 5N21 Kirkleatham Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain - 9.00 0.80 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 5N25 Normanby Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain - 7.00 1.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 5N26 Barnaby Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain Richard de Sourdeval 6.00 0.27 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 5N32 Stemanesbi Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain Nigel Fossard 2.50 0.53 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 5N38 Oswaldkirk Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain - 1.00 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 5N39 Scawton Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain - 2.00 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 5N40 Pockley Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain - 1.00 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 5N41 Beadlam Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain - 4.00 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 5N42 Harome Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain - 5.00 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 5N49 Stiltons Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain - 2.00 1.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 5N50 Helmsley Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain - 8.00 1.60 0.50 - Map
Yorkshire 5N52 Beadlam Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain - 4.00 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 5N9 Aislaby Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Robert, count of Mortain Richard de Sourdeval 3.00 0.53 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 6N56 Kirkby Fleetham Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Alan, count Odo the chamberlain 4.00 1.00 1.00 - Map
Yorkshire 6N56 Fencote Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Alan, count Odo the chamberlain 4.50 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 6N59 Langthorne Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Alan, count Odo the chamberlain 3.00 0.80 0.25 - Map
Yorkshire 6N60 Hackforth Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Alan, count Odo the chamberlain 1.00 0.40 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire C10 York Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - William, king William de Percy 0.00 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire C2 York Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - William, king William de Saint-Calais, bishop of Durham 0.00 0.00 0.00 - Map
Totals

Tenant-in-Chief 1086 demesne estates (no subtenants)

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 29E10 Fraisthorpe Vctred Carl 'of Nafferton' - Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - 1.00 0.25 0.25 - Map
Yorkshire 29E14 Rudston Vctred Ligulf 'of Rudston' - Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - 8.00 0.50 0.50 - Map
Yorkshire 29E22 East Heslerton Vctred Gospatric son of Arnkil - Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - 3.50 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 29N10 Stemanesbi Vctred - - Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - 2.00 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 29N12 Newsham Vctred Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - 1.25 0.08 0.13 - Map
Yorkshire 29N8 Stokesley Vctred Hawarth 'of Stokesley' - Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - 6.00 24.00 8.00 - Map
Yorkshire 29N9 Dromonby Vctred - Hawarth Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - 3.00 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 29N9 Great Busby Vctred - Hawarth Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - 5.00 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 29N9 Little Busby Vctred - Hawarth Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - 3.00 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 29N9 Tanton Vctred - Hawarth Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - 1.50 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 29N9 Skutterskelfe Vctred - Hawarth Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - 2.25 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 29N9 Thoraldby Vctred - Hawarth Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - 2.00 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 29N9 Ingleby Greenhow Vctred - Hawarth Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - 7.00 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 29N9 Little Broughton Vctred - Hawarth Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - 8.00 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 29N9 Kirkby Vctred - Hawarth Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland - 3.00 0.00 0.00 - Map
Totals

Lord 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 5N11 Roxby - - Uhtræd Robert, count of Mortain Uhtræd 2.00 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 5N17 Marske - - Uhtræd Robert, count of Mortain Richard de Sourdeval 10.00 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 5N51 Coulton - - Uhtræd Robert, count of Mortain - 1.50 0.00 0.00 - Map
Yorkshire 5N51 Fryton - - Uhtræd Robert, count of Mortain - 0.50 0.00 0.00 - 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
Yorkshire 5N11 Roxby Vctred - Uhtræd Robert, count of Mortain Uhtræd 2.00 0.00 0.00 - Map
Totals

Profile

The identification of most of the Uhtræd entries in Yorkshire with a single great TRE landowner starts with their skewed geographical distribution, concentrated in three clusters in the North Riding. The largest group was in Cleveland, a vaguely defined territory which was literally the ‘land of cliffs’ running west from Whitby almost to the mouth of the Tees and corresponded in general terms to DB’s wapentake of Langbargh (PN Yorks. NR, 128–9; Gelling and Cole 2000: 283). Uhtræd’s largest manors there were Guisborough (25 carucates), Skelton (13 carucates), and Brotton (12 carucates), but there were a dozen other smaller places too. They were concentrated within a stretch of not much more than 12 miles, with an outlier at Aislaby 3 or 4 miles to the south-east in a different wapentake. It is inconceivable that more than one Uhtræd is involved here. 

Uhtræd was by some way the biggest landowner in Langbargh wapentake in 1066, with around 100 carucates of land, a fifth of the total. He was, moreover, the only landowner in about half the vills concerned, and controlled at least half the assessment (usually much more) in the rest. The only exceptions were Kilton and Kilton Thorpe, adjoining vills (as their names suggest) where the dominant landowner was Thorkil, with 5½ carucates to Uhtræd’s 2½.

Langbargh wapentake (i.e. Cleveland) was the heart of Uhtræd’s estates in 1066, so it is highly significant that the name Uhtræd of Cleveland appears in two monastic cartularies from the region (below). All these manors passed before 1086 to the king’s half-brother Robert, count of Mortain, who retained some in demesne and gave others to his tenant Richard de Sourdeval. There was one exception: in 1086 Uhtræd still had 2 carucates of sokeland at Roxby as the count’s tenant, confirming the cartulary evidence that Uhtræd of Cleveland survived the Conquest as a landowner.

The second cluster of North Riding manors assigned to a Uhtræd in 1066 was centred on Helmsley, some 20 miles south of Cleveland in Ryedale, the other side of the North York Moors. Uhtræd’s total here was 25 carucates, distributed across seven manors (the two entries for Beadlam are duplicates) in a pattern rather different from Cleveland, since in Ryedale Uhtræd owned all the land in only one vill. The whole group stood within a radius of 6 miles from Helmsley, with an outlier at Newsham, 9 miles down Ryedale from Helmsley but within 4 miles of other members of the group. Newsham was divided TRE between Uhtræd and Thorbern, and both men retained their property as king’s thegns in 1086. Proximity makes it probable that the king’s thegn at Newsham was the TRE holder at Helmsley. In that respect, there is a similarity between Ryedale and Cleveland (sizeable cluster of manors TRE, only one retained in 1086) which makes it more likely than not that the Ryedale manors also belonged to Uhtræd of Cleveland.

With the exception of Newsham, all Uhtræd’s manors in the Cleveland and Ryedale groups were given after the Conquest to Robert, count of Mortain. His Yorkshire fief was not an early creation; it was formed by assigning him all the residual estates in specific wapentakes which had not already been given to other Normans on an antecessorial basis as individual English landowners were killed or dispossessed in the early years of the reign. That means that Robert’s succession to Uhtræd in Cleveland and Ryedale (and indeed elsewhere in Yorkshire) does not in itself demonstrate that only one Uhtræd was involved: Uhtræd was not Robert’s antecessor in that sense. But it does point indirectly to a single Uhtræd. Thorbrand 2 held extensively in the wapentakes where Count Robert was the residual successor, but when he died in 1073 his manors passed en bloc to Berengar de Tosny; Robert’s fief was a later creation, and there are good reasons to date it around 1075 (Fleming 1991: 153–80). That in turn means that Uhtræd retained his lands until c. 1075 and increases our confidence that there was only one major landowner of the name who successfully negotiated the years of rebellion and retribution in Yorkshire.

Uhtræd appears as the name of a surviving king’s thegn in Yorkshire at many more estates than Newsham. The most important was Stokesley and its extensive soke, 40¾ carucates in all, located on the south-west flank of Cleveland less than 8 miles from Guisborough. Stokesley belonged TRE to Hawarth 2. The men of Langbargh wapentake testified during the Domesday Inquest that Hawarth’s lands had been given before the rebellion of 1069 (‘before the castle was taken’) to William Malet (castellan of York and sheriff of Yorkshire) (Yorks. CN:3; ODNB). At Malet’s death, probably in 1071, they reverted to the king, who retained all but Stokesley in his own hands in 1086. It is very probable that the Uhtræd who received Stokesley was Uhtræd of Cleveland, compensated quite handsomely (though some way short of like for like) when Count Robert was given his heartland manors in Cleveland.

A king’s thegn of the same name had four other scattered manors in the East and North Ridings, up to 30 miles from Newsham and 50 from Stokesley, though the distance does not count against their being held by the same man. One of them, the lost North Riding vill of Stemanesbi, is crucial for identifying the king’s thegn of 1086 with the TRE landowner Uhtræd of Cleveland. There were three holdings in Stemanesbi TRE: (1) 1½ carucates which was soke of Earl Tosti (Tosti 2)’s manor of Falsgrave though is not mentioned by name among the list of sokelands in the main entry for Falsgrave (Yorks. 1Y:3); (2) 2½ carucates held TRE by Uhtræd and in 1086 by the count of Mortain’s man Nigel Fossard; and (3) 2 carucates which Uhtræd, king’s thegn, had in 1086 and whose TRE holder is not named. Only (2) is listed in the Yorkshire Summary (Yorks. SN:D3). Stemanesbi has been variously identified with Newby (VCH Yorks. NR, II, 479) and as a lost vill in Scalby (Phill. Yorks. II, note 5N:32), adjoining places just north of Falsgrave, but without any evidence. More attractive is a link with the next vill north, Burniston. Burniston appears only once in DB, among the sokelands of Falsgrave; that holding can be identified in later records because its link with Falsgrave endured (VCH Yorks. NR, II, 480). But there was a second holding in Burniston in later centuries, the property of Whitby abbey, which had been founded as a Benedictine priory at the site of the early Northumbrian monastery on the coast of Cleveland between the Conquest and 1078.

Whitby’s foundation narrative, written in the later twelfth century, noted that 2 carucates at Burniston had been given ‘by grant of Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland’ (Cart. Whitby, I, no. 1, p. 4). The grant is undated, but it occurs in a little group of three donations by men with native English names, the others being another Uhtræd (son of Gospatric) and his son Thorfin of Allerston. Uhtræd of Allerston’s charter is in fact preserved elsewhere in the cartulary and was issued in the time of Prior Serlo (Cart. Whitby, I, no. 108), that is, within the period 1091–1109 (Heads, 78). Since Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland’s gift was listed before Uhtræd of Allerston’s it should probably be assigned to an earlier date. All this points to the confident identification of Whitby’s benefactor Uhtræd son of Thorkil of Cleveland with Uhtræd 18, a great landed proprietor in Cleveland who was associated at Kilton and Kilton Thorpe with none other than Thorkil.

But where in DB is the 2 carucates at Burniston that Uhtræd gave Whitby? Since it is not mentioned under the name of Burniston, the obvious answer is that it must be the 2 carucates at Stemanesbi that Uhtræd held as a king’s thegn in 1086. Stemanesbi was undoubtedly somewhere very near Burniston. Both places were in the Domesday wapentake of Dic (later called Pickering Lythe) and they were listed in the Yorkshire Summary only one place apart (Yorks. SN:2–3); in addition part of each Domesday vill was soke of Falsgrave. If this identification of DB Stemanesbi with the cartulary’s Burniston is correct, it provides a further connection between the great TRE landowner and the king’s thegn of 1086.

Less confidence can be felt in identifying the same Uhtræd in the East Riding. Three of the four TRE manors concerned lay at the foot of the Wolds 5 miles north of Beverley, with the fourth some 10 miles away towards the coast. The whole group, less tightly focused than those in the North Riding, was around 40 miles even from Helmsley. Probably they belonged, on geographical grounds alone, to a single Uhtræd; and on balance that was Uhtræd of Cleveland, since Little Kelk, at least, was quite close to two of the manors in Uhtræd’s hands in 1086.

One final cluster of rural estates remains to be discussed, in the western part of the North Riding astride the Roman road between the crossings of the Ure at Boroughbridge and the Swale at Catterick. Uhtræd had one of two manors at Fleetham and its berewicks of Great and Little Fencote, but it is not clear what belonged to him and what to his partner Gamel, nor whether the sokeland of Fleetham in three nearby vills was attached to Gamel’s manor, Uhtræd’s manor, or both. Uhtræd alone held the whole of Langthorne and 1 carucate of the 6 at Hackforth, both within 3 miles of Fleetham. This forms a tight cluster of property like Uhtræd of Cleveland’s manors elsewhere in the North Riding, and it lay a little over 30 miles south-west of Guisborough. It was within the area given as a territorial grant to Count Alan, so that nothing can be concluded from the fact that it did not come to Robert, count of Mortain. On balance this group of manors, too, probably belonged to Uhtræd of Cleveland.

That leaves York, where two rather enigmatic references to Uhtræd hint at a substantial piece of property. First, ‘all Uhtræd’s land’ in the city was given by King William to the bishop of Durham. It may have lain near another of the bishop’s acquisitions, namely the church of All Saints Pavement ‘and what belongs to it’. The latter phrase perhaps comprehended rights over the nearest church to the south, St Mary Castlegate, which owed All Saints a pension in 1267 and so had probably once been dependent upon it (VCH City of York: 370; RCHME 1972: 16).

‘All Uhtræd’s land’ sounds more ample than a house or two. In theory it could have comprised either scattered houses or a block of land, but if DB had meant scattered houses perhaps it would have referred to all Uhtræd’s houses rather than all his land. As it happens, the location of one of Uhtræd’s houses can be fixed by the second reference in DB, which concerns ‘one house of a certain Uhtræd’, which the burgesses asserted had been removed into the castle by William de Percy on his own say-so after he returned from Scotland, that is after King William’s invasion of Scotland in 1072. William de Percy denied it, and said that he removed the house on the authority of Hugh the sheriff in the first year after the destruction of the castles in York, that is, during the twelve months from autumn 1069, denying specifically that he ever had Uhtræd’s land. The latter assertion chimes with the earlier statement that the bishop of Durham had received all Uhtræd’s land. The house removed into the castle is likely to have stood towards the south end of St Mary Castlegate parish, and to have been absorbed when the castle precinct was enlarged after the sack of 1069 (RCHME 1972: 59–60).

These are no more than hints that ‘Uhtræd’s land’ in York, later the bishop of Durham’s, may have amounted to a substantial urban estate. If that is right, the Uhtræd in question is arguably much more likely to have been Uhtræd 18, a major landowner in Yorkshire, than any other Uhtræd.

The identification of all Uhtræd 18’s manors in 1066 and 1086 is hedged with varying degrees of confidence. As a minimum he had around 100 carucates of land, demesne and soke, mostly in Cleveland. The most likely reconstruction gives him some 136 carucates in demesne and lordship over another 14. In 1066 they were valued at only £15, though all Yorkshire values are problematic. Uhtræd had lost very nearly all this land by 1086 but had made substantial acquisitions as a king’s thegn by way of compensation, as well as retaining three of his old manors (two held directly from the king and one from Count Robert). In 1086 his fief amounted to 58½ carucates, worth a meagre £9 or so; he can be counted among the more notable English survivors, and not only in Yorkshire. His modest grant to the new monastery at Whitby shows him working alongside his new French neighbours. 

Uhtræd’s largest single holding before 1066 had been Guisborough, in Cleveland, where, significantly, his tenure was remembered a generation later: when Robert de Brus gave most of Guisborough to the Augustinian priory which he founded there in 1119, he conceded that the canons should have ‘the free service of the land of Uhtræd of Cleveland which was owed to me’ (Cart. Guisborough, I, no. 1, pp. 2–3).

Bibliography


Cart. Guisborough: Cartularium Prioratus de Gyseburne, ed. W. Brown, 2 vols, Surtees Society 86 and 89 (1889–94)

Cart. Whitby: Cartularium Abbathiae de Whiteby, ed. J. C. Atkinson, 2 vols, Surtees Society 69 and 72 (1879–81)

Fleming 1991: Robin Fleming, Kings and Lords in Conquest England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991)

Gelling and Cole 2000: Margaret Gelling and Ann Cole, The Landscape of Place-Names (Stamford: Shaun Tyas, 2000)

ODNB: On-line Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

PN Yorks. NR: A. H. Smith, The Place-Names of the North Riding of Yorkshire, English Place-Name Society 5 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1928)

RCHME 1972: Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, England, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of York, II: The Defences (HMSO, 1972)

VCH City of York: The Victoria History of the Counties of England: A History of Yorkshire: The City of York, ed. P. M. Tillott (London: Oxford University Press for the Institute of Historical Research, 1961)

VCH Yorks.: The Victoria History of the Counties of England: The Victoria History of the County of York, ed. William Page, 3 vols and index (London, 1907–25)

VCH Yorks. NR: The Victoria History of the Counties of England: The Victoria History of the County of York, North Riding, ed. William Page, 2 vols and index (London, 1914–25)