PASE: Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England

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Summary

Tonni 2 was a substantial TRE landholder with roughly forty manors, berewicks and sokelands in Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire together with single estates in Berkshire and Oxfordshire. 

Distribution map of property and lordships associated with this name in DB

Profile

Tonni 3 held at least six manors and their associated berewicks and sokelands in Lincolnshire TRE, together with further sokelands there, six estates in Northamptonshire and one in each of Berkshire and Oxfordshire. Nearly all of these lands had passed to Gilbert of Ghent (Gilbert 23) after the Conquest; the exceptions were three Lincolnshire sokelands held by William de Percy (William 19) in 1086, and the Clamores section of DB for the South Riding of Lincolnshire implies that these too should have passed to Gilbert and on the grounds that Tonni had held them TRE. 

Despite the rarity of the name Tonni it is extremely unlikely that Tonni 2 can be the same person as Tonni 3 because Tonni 3’s single TRE estate passed to Osbern d’Arques (Osbern 12) rather than to Gilbert of Ghent after the Conquest and Tonni 3 was still alive in 1086, which is not the case with regard to Tonni 2. That Tonni 2’s closest estate (Ludford, in Lincolnshire) was 50 miles from that of Tonni 3 in Yorkshire is a less significant distinction, however, because Tonni 2 was a substantial TRE landholder who could and did hold lands this far apart.

Despite the extreme rarity of the name Tonni there is no evidence in DB or the later manorial descent of Caldecote to link Tonni 4 with either of the other TRE landholders of that name, and for similar reasons it is unlikely that he can be associated with the Tonni 5 who in 1086 was a subtenant at Bericote, 16 miles from Caldecote.

Bibliography

Clarke 2004: P. A. Clarke, The English Nobility under Edward the Confessor (Oxford, 1994)

Sherman 1978: R. M. Sherman, ‘The continental origins of the Ghent family of Lincolnshire’, Nottingham Mediaeval Studies 22 (1978)