Wenyeva atte grene, 29 January 2007; last edited 31 January 2007
by Wenyeva atte grene
The following list is drawn from two sections of the Court Rolls of the Manor of Wakefield. Wakefield is in what was historically the West Riding of Yorkshire.
The manor court rolls contain records of much of the business that was done in the manor, including the levying of fines and settlement of disputes. Women as well as men pleaded their cases in the manor court sessions.
While women's names are not as common in the Rolls as men's names, there are many to be found. The names here are from two different periods: 1274-75 and 1350-52. First, I've listed each name in alphabetical order, and how many of the name can be found in each period. See below for the names in order of popularity: 1274-75 and 1350-52.
Some of these names are themselves variants of other names here; for example, Mariota is a diminutive of Mary, and so are Malle and Malyna. If the forms were substantially different, I kept them separate here, but keep in mind that in certain cases we are dealing with multiple forms of the same name.
If you need further information about these names, for many of the names I have provided links to Talan Gwynek's excellent resource Feminine Given Names in A Dictionary of English Surnames, which contains examples of a great many names from this period, and provides useful etymological information as well as other forms of these names.
(A note regarding the forms of these names: The original documents are in Latin. I am working from an English translation. The editors of the 1350-52 volume seem more likely than that of the earlier volume to list the names in their Latin documentary form: e.g. Cecilia, which may have been something like Cicely in the vernacular. Names in the earlier volume have typically been normalized by the translator, so, for example, Parnell is the normalized form of the Latin version, Petronilla. In the future I plan to replice the normalized forms here with the Latin forms from the original.)
| Agnes | 1274-75: 21 1350-52: 29 |
| Aleysia, Alice, Alicia | 1274-75: 17 1350-52: 33 |
| Alot, Alote | 1274-75: 2 |
| Amabel | 1274-75: 2 |
| Amice | 1350: 1 |
| Amora (I do not have access to the original text, but I wonder if this is in fact Annora with the nn misread as m.) | 1351: 1 |
| Annabel, Anabel (Annabella once in 1352) | 1274-75: 2 1350-52: 6 |
| Annot, Anot | 1274-75: 2 1351: 1 |
| Avice | 1274-75: 3 |
| Beatrice, Beatrix | 1275: 1 1350-52: 8 |
| Cecilia, Cecelia | 1350-52: 11 |
| Christiana | 1274-75: 2 1350-52: 2 |
| Cicely | 1274-75: 4 |
| Dionysia, Dyonisia | 1351: 3 (Two of these may be the same woman) |
| Dyota | 1275: 1 |
| Elizabeth | 1350-52: 6 |
| Ellen (Elena once in 1352) | 1275: 1 1350-52: 4 |
| Emma | 1274-75: 3 |
| Eugina | 1275: 1 |
| Eva | 1274: 1 1350-52: 4 |
| Gelle | 1275: 2 |
| Gemma | 1275: 1 |
| Godyth, Godith | 1275: 1 |
| Hawisia | 1275: 1 |
| Idonea | 1352: 1 |
| Isabella (one Isabel) | 1350-52: 16 |
| Isolda | 1275: 2 1350-52: 3 |
| Ivett' | 1274: 1 |
| Johanna | 1350-52: 24 |
| Jonetta | 1274: 1 |
| Juliana | 1274-75: 4 1350-52: 7 |
| Lettice | 1274: 1 |
| Magge (also here) | 1274: 2 |
| Malle | 1274: 1 |
| Malyna | 1274: 1 |
| Margaret | 1350-52: 10 |
| Margery (one Marjory in 1275) | 1274-75: 8 1350-52: 33 |
| Mariota | 1275: 1 1350-52: 2 |
| Mary | 1275: 3 |
| Matilda | 1350-52: 24 |
| Maude | 1275: 7 |
| Meriilda, Miriilda | 1275: 1 |
| Modest | 1351: 1 |
| Nalle | 1275: 1 |
| Olive | 1350: 1 |
| Parnell | 1275: 1 |
| Quenilda | 1275: 1 |
| Sabina | 1350: 1 |
| Sarah | 1275: 3 |
| Sibyl | 1275: 1 |
| Susannah | 1275: 1 |
| [unnamed] (usually identified in the Court Rolls by husband's name e.g."the wife of Adam") | 1274-75: 10 1350-52: 45 |
| Wymark | 1275: 2 |
| Agnes | 21 |
| Aleysia, Alice, Alicia | 17 |
| Margery, Marjory | 8 |
| Maude | 7 |
| Cicely, Juliana | 4 |
| Avice, Emma, Mary, Sarah | 3 |
| Alot, Alote; Amabel; Annabel, Anabel; Annot, Anot; Christiana; Gelle; Isolda; Magge; Wymark | 2 |
| Beatrice; Dyota; Ellen; Eugina; Eva; Gemma; Godyth, Godith; Hawisia; Idonea; Ivett'; Jonetta; Lettice; Malle; Malyna; Mariota; Meriilda, Miriilda; Nalle; Parnell; Quenilda; Sibyl; Susannah | 1 |
| Aleysia, Alice, Alicia; Margery | 33 |
| Agnes | 29 |
| Johanna, Matilda | 24 |
| Isabella, Isabel | 16 |
| Cecilia, Cecelia | 11 |
| Margaret | 10 |
| Beatrice, Beatrix | 8 |
| Juliana | 7 |
| Annabel, Anabel, Annabella | 6 |
| Elizabeth | 6 |
| Ellen, Elena; Eva | 4 |
| Dionysia, Dyonisia; Isolda | 3 |
| Christiana, Mariota | 2 |
| Amice; Amora; Annot, Anot; Idonea; Modest; Olive; Sabina | 1 |
Court Rolls of The Manor of Wakefield, 1274-1297. Ed. and trans. William Paley Baildon. Vol. 1 (first series). Leeds: Yorkshire Archæological Society, 1901.
Court Rolls of The Manor of Wakefield, 1350-1352. Ed and trans. Moira Habberjam, Mary O'Regan, Brian Hale. Vol. VI (second series). Leeds: Yorkshire Archæological Society, 1987.
Wenyeva atte grene, 29 January 2007; last edited 31 January 2007
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© 2007 Wendi Dunlap