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Leomær 21

Name

Summary

Leomær 21 is named in FBB among 57 minor tenants on the berewick of Bury St Edmunds Abbey at Woolpit, east of Bury, in 1086.

Profile

Leomær 21 is named in FBB (138⁽²⁾, as Lemmer Heiuuard) among 57 minor tenants on the berewick of Bury St Edmunds Abbey at Woolpit, 7½ miles to the east of Bury, in 1086; the corresponding DB entry records a total of 40 free men, 17 villans and 3 bordars on the estate in 1086 but does not include their names. Leomær 21 is the first name in the list but his holding of 3 acres (rendering 3d) is not among the largest there. His byname is from Old English hægweard ‘enclosure-keeper, hayward’ and in this instance probably means that Leomær 21 was responsible for keeping the abbey’s cattle from straying (Tengvik 1938: 253). It is possible that he is the same person as Leomær 20, named as the son of another minor tenant at Woolpit in 1086; but the name is not uncommon in the FBB texts and the possibility must be left open. The implicit continuity of holdings between TRE and 1086 in DB does not prove that Leomær 21 already held his land before the Conquest, although the possibility cannot be ruled out.

Bibliography

Tengvik 1938: G. Tengvik, Old English Bynames (Uppsala, 1938)