Walter of Papworth

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In 1086 at the time of the Doomsday Book we have a man by the name of Walter (no surname) who holds only a nice-sized parcel of land in the Parish of Papworth, which was part of the Hundred of Papworth in Cambridgeshire, and a somewhat a smaller holding in the Sawtry (later subdivided) in Huntingdonshire. He held both sets of lands as a feudal subtenant of a man known in Cambridgeshire as Robert of Huntingdon and in Huntingdon as Robert the Sheriff. The lands Robert held in Cambridgeshire can be shown to be those lands which later became known as the Manor of Papworth St. Agnes. The lands in Sawtry held by Walter were never erected into a manor, though the name, Papworth tract survived the medieval period into modern times to designate them. That both were held by the same individual, is a matter of importance because it provides a key clue as to their own descent later (as well as the descent of other connected properties which were acquire and disposed of at later dates during the middle ageas); and this, in turn, is a very powerful tool in clarifying the family relationships that were involved, a knowledge of which being what makes history come alive.

The name of the manor, the parish, and the county hundred was originally the same. In the earliest periods, it was sometimes written Pampeworthe (two syllables only), probably in confusion with the place name of another district of Cambridgeshire which was called Pampesworthe (three syllables, with the “s” pronounced). Soon enough Pappeworthe (the modern Papworth) became the most common medieval spelling, though there are endless variants. Anneys with its own variations in spelling became suffixed to Pappeworthe to produce Pappeworthe Anneys as the most common representation of the manor’s name by which it became popularly known from the very last years of the 12th century, at the latest. The Anneys of Pappeworthe Anneys was a phonetic representation of the local pronunciation of a woman’s name, Agnes. This was done in honour of the first woman to hold the manor in her own right, Agnes de Pappeworthe (perhaps the most common of many medieval spellings of this family’s name, so the one I would like to use, rather than Papworth which I will reserve for the name of the manor, itself). Apparently, in the 19th century, government surveyors, when translating into English the Latin version of the name (Papworth Agnetis) appearing in the legal documents of previous centuries, hyper-corrected it to Papworth St. Agnes on the mistaken assumption that the use of a woman’s name could only be explained if the woman the manor was named after were a saint. Actually, this was partly true, but is a story to be narrated under the next generation.

Walter would have been born around 1055, assuming a normal generation length between him and the next person to possess the manor. The Doomsday Book form of his name makes it appear he was English, rather than Norman French, but no mention is made of his ethnic background as is sometimes the case with others so, ultimately, his ethnic origin must be considered unknown. When he died is impossible to estimate, though sometime during the reign of Henry I would be reasonable as that would appear to have been during the era in which this manor was held by its next feudal tenant and under whom the unique manner by which Papworth St. Agnes was to be held in feudal tenure was likely to have been determined.