Agnes de Pappeworthe

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The next identifiable feudal tenant of both the Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire properties was Agnes de Pappeworthe, a woman who was very likely to have been the daughter of Walter [of Papworth] and born around 1080. If not, then she would have been the wife of Walter’s son or nephew and the manor would have been entailed on her for her life, as her single appearance in the written record is in what would have to be her old age. An approximate year of birth, though, at around 1080, of course, assumes a generation length of only 20 years each between the two generations after her because we are dealing with heiresses, among whom child marriage was common. Agnes appears in the written record as the lady of Papworth in her own right only twice in the late 1250s, both times being listed in the Pipe Rolls as having paid money she, for some reason or other, owed the crown, the debt being paid off quite quickly. Her age can be roughly estimated as can the manner of descent due to a special mention made of the manor in the “Rotuli de Dominabus et Pueris et Puellis de XII Comitatibus”, a survey taken in 1285.

I once came across mention of a story that this particular Agnes had been a mistress of Henry I, but I would not know how to go about discovering whether this might be true or not. In any case, Agnes would have been the right age and the unique form by which she held her manor of the king seems to be hiding a story of some sort behind it. It was held by Agnes and her heirs in order to provide feed and clothe two poor people on an on-going basis and for its possessor to pray for the souls of the king and his ancestors. Because this was a religious purpose and was a gift of the king, it was subject to no other feudal fees, thus the manor effectively became a tax free zone operating in Cambrideshire to the benefit of its lords. Significantly, the Huntingdonshire lands are not included in this gift.

Agnes’s husband’s name is unknown, as is whether she even had a husband. Her surname, if she were Walter’s daughter, was probably no more than a territorial designation, not a surname in the modern sense, and so, too, would have been the name of any spouse or significant other, if he had been a native Englishman. In fact, there are at least two other Pappeworthe families I have come across in medieval England in different counties who cannot very well have been related to each other or to the lords and ladies of Papworth St. Agnes.

Nevertheless, whatever the marital state of Agnes de Pappeworthe, she did appear to live a long life and certainly must have appeared to do good, especially during the troubled times of King Stephen when much of the English countryside was devastated and the economy wrecked. For whatever reason, the manor became so indelibly identified with her that, by the time of her death, which I estimate to have been as late as 1165, the manor was popularly known as “Pappeworth Anneys” (or, any of the many numerous spelling variations, thereof), a name which is noted in the written record as early as the first years of the 13th century not more than 50, perhaps not more than 40 years after her death.