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Leodmær 6 was a man of Archbishop Stigand (Stigand 1) who held four estates in north Hertfordshire TRE with a total assessment of 6 hides 1¼ virgates and with a probable value of £16 9s; he had the power of alienation over all of his 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
Holder 1066 DB Spelling
Holder 1066
Lord 1066
Tenant-in-Chief 1086
1086
subtenant
Fiscal value
1066
value
1086 value
Holder 1066 ID conf.
Show on map
Hertfordshire
7,2
Bygrave
Lemarus
Leodmær 'of Bygrave'
Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury
Robert, bishop of Chester
-
4.25
10.20
8.50
A
Map
Hertfordshire
7,3
Broadfield
Ledmær
Leodmær 'of Bygrave'
Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury
Robert, bishop of Chester
-
0.25
0.25
0.15
B
Map
Hertfordshire
23,1
Hainstone
Lemar
Leodmær 'of Bygrave'
Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury
Ralph de Limésy
-
0.56
1.00
0.50
D
Map
Hertfordshire
23,2
Caldecot
Lemarus
Leodmær 'of Bygrave'
Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury
Ralph de Limésy
-
1.25
5.00
2.00
C
Map
Total
6.31
16.45
11.15
Leodmær 6’s four TRE estates were at Bygrave, Broadfield, Hainstone and Caldecot, at least three of which are in north Hertfordshire. Only one DB entry gives his name unambiguously as Leodmær (Ledmær; the other three have Lemar(us)), but it is probable that all four estates were held by the same man. Firstly, these are the only TRE estates to have been held by someone called either Leodmær or Leomær who was also described as a ‘man of Archbishop Stigand’ (Stigand 1) in DB; secondly, the entries for Bygrave and Broadfield are adjacent in DB, as are those for Hainstone and Caldecot, which increases the likelihood that each pair was held by one person; and, thirdly, although each pair passed to a different post-Conquest successor the four estates are linked by their very close geographical proximity, with no estate apparently lying more than 8 miles from any of the others.
In the DB entries for all four of his estates Leodmær 6 was recorded as being able to sell his land, which means that he had the power of alienation over his estates and implies that his relationship with Archbishop Stigand was one of commendation rather than being a dependent tenant.
Leodmær 6’s largest estate was that at Bygrave, a mile or so from where Ermine Street crosses the Icknield Way and where his part of it was assessed at 4 hides 1 virgate (another 3 virgates at Bygrave being held TRE by two of Stigand’s sokemen); if the TRE value of £12 for the whole 5 hides were divided in proportion to the assessments then Leodmar’s share would be worth £10 4s.
There are two pre-Conquest references to Bygrave that suggest that Leodmær’s family had held it for at least fifty years before the Conquest if not more. The clearest of these references is in the will of the ætheling Æthelstan (Æthelstan 62) in 1014, which includes the clause ‘and I grant to Leommære of Bygrave the lands that I took from him before’ (S 1503; Whitelock 1930: 56-63, 167-74). Whitelock translated as Leofmær both this Leommære (Leofmær 1 in PASE) and the Lemar’ who held Bygrave TRE, although von Feilitzen (1937: 310 n3) objected to the latter derivation and the former could just as readily be rendered as Leomær or Leodmær. However, the key point is that an estate at Bygrave was held TRE by Leodmær 6 and fifty years earlier was associated with someone who also had a name from the unusual (if not rare) Leo(d/f/m)mær group, and this strongly suggests that both men were closely-related members of the same family and that Bygrave was a family estate.
The second reference to Bygrave is from a considerably less reliable text that purports to record grants made to Thorney Abbey by King Edgar (Edgar 11) in 973 (S 792). It includes a clause to the effect that Leofsige 11 son of Ælfsige 69 was involved in a grant of 6 hides at Bygrave to the abbey. Whitelock (1930: 173) suggested that this Leofsige (who she mistakenly identified as Leofwine son of Athulf, mentioned in the same clause) could be the father of the Leommære who was associated with Bygrave in 1014, which if correct would extend both the family and its connection with the estate back a further forty years.
Leodmær 6’s other TRE estates were close to, but notably smaller than, Bygrave. Caldecot, just over 2 miles to the north-west, was assessed at 1¼ hides and Broadfield, 5 miles to the south-east of Bygrave, was assessed at only 1 virgate, but the identity and location of his estate at Hainstone is uncertain. Its assessment was for ½ hide ¼ virgate and the DB spelling could derive from Old English hengest-tūn ‘stallion estate’ and so represent a partial parallel to the place-names Hinxton (Cambs.) and Hinxworth (Herts.) (Watts 2004: 307), with the latter also being a possible identification for Hainstone. Hinxworth is in the correct DB hundred and is in the vicinity of Leodmær 6’s other estates, being about 1¼ miles north of Caldecot and less than 3½ miles from Bygrave. Furthermore, one of the six unnamed sokemen with land at Hinxworth TRE was a man of Stigand’s with ½ hide, which is tolerably close to the assessment of Hainstone and so may represent a duplicate entry for Leodmær 6 (Morris 1976: DB 23,1 Notes). Although an interchange between tūn ‘estate’ and worð ‘enclosure’ as the final element of a place-name is feasible, however, it is not noted elsewhere in the surviving forms for Hinxworth and so the question of its possible identity with Hainstone must be left open; nevertheless, this interpretation has been adopted for mapping purposes.
There are four other estates in the vicinity of Bygrave whose TRE holders were called either Leomær (Leomær 7 and Leomær 9) or Leodmær (Leodmær 8), but all of these holders had lords other than Stigand and one, Leodmær 8, was still holding his estate in 1086; furthermore, each of these estates passed to different TRW tenants-in-chief, none of whom was the same as either of the successors to Leodmær 6’s estates. Although these estates all lay within 7¼ miles of Bygrave and were held TRE by people with names from the unusual Leo(d/f/m)mær name-group, therefore, there is not possible to identify any or all of these other holders with Leodmær 6 on the basis of the present evidence. An alternative explanation is that this cluster of TRE names represents a localized habit of name-giving influenced by the early eleventh-century holder of Bygrave, discussed above.
Bibliography
Morris 1976: Domesday Book 12: Hertfordshire, ed. J. Morris (Chichester, 1976)
Whitelock 1930: Anglo-Saxon Wills, ed. D. Whitelock (Cambridge, 1930)
Watts 2004: The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, ed. V. Watts (Cambridge, 2004)
von Feilitzen 1937: O. von Feilitzen, The Pre-Conquest Personal Names of Domesday Book (Uppsala, 1937)
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