< See previous profile Discussion of the name
Beorhtræd 13 was a thegn of Earl Edwin of Mercia who held one of the berewicks of the earl’s great manor of Bromsgrove, assessed at 2¾ hides and worth £1.
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
Worcestershire
1,1c
Willingwick
Brictredus
Beorhtræd 'of Willingwick'
Edwin, earl
William, king
Urse d'Abetot
2.75
1.44
1.05
A
Map
Total
2.75
1.44
1.05
Beorhtræd was one of five thegns of Earl Edwin who held four named berewicks of the earl’s manor of Bromsgrove without power of alienation; the berewicks passed after the Conquest to four knights who held as tenants of the royal manor under Urse the sheriff. DB makes it clear that in 1086 each knight had one of the berewicks, but does not say which thegn had held what TRE and does not give individual values.
Those details are supplied by the late twelfth-century text called Evesham A, an abstract of Domesday information about holdings, hidages, and holders for most of Worcestershire; it derives from a ‘satellite’ of DB dating from 1086. Evesham A was of course subject to copying error and should not be trusted over GDB itself where the details disagree.
The DB entry corresponds to Evesham A 166, which names the thegn Brichthveit as holding Willingwick TRE. Brichthveit is unsatisfactory as a personal name, seeming to mistake the second syllable as the Scandinavian place-name element thveit. It can, however, be reconstructed as a misreading of Brictret, with two perfectly normal twelfth-century spelling substitutions (ch for c, and th for t), r misread as v, and –et rendered as –eit (the last as in the name of another of the Bromsgrove thegns, DB’s Erniet (Earngeat) becoming Evesham A’s Ernheit). Willingwick has disappeared but its location about 3 miles north of Bromsgrove is known (PN Worcs. 345).
Since Beorhtræd did not have power of alienation of his only manor, he was presumably a retained based in Earl Edwin’s household.
Bibliography
PN Worcs:
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