The Family of Aethelwig, Abbot of Evesham 1058–78 and Acting Justiciar of the Mercian Province

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article arises from research into people named in the Worcestershire Domesday Book. Counties were administrative units rather than limits on landholding, and estates could stretch across many counties. A greater understanding of each person can come from the Domesday evidence of their estate’s geographical arrangement and who, if anyone, shared their manors and townships. The family of Abbot Aethelwig of Evesham shows what can be achieved through this approach. After the Norman conquest Aethelwig was said, by Hemming, to be second only in judicial power in the Mercian province to William the Conqueror. Documents tell us that Ordwy was Aethelwig’s father. This is enough to reconstruct his immediate family and its pre-conquest estate. It was a family of thegns whose estate was organized to facilitate communication between family members in north Staffordshire, at Evesham and Leominster Abbeys and beyond. There is evidence of a strong link with Evesham Abbey.