Theoderic (Bacton) de Bacton

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NOTE: There is uncertainty about the exact relationships of this person, and even whether it was only one person.

Biography

This article is primarily about Tedric (Theoderic, Derek, Teri) the brother of Walter the Deacon, who is mentioned in Domesday Book, 1086.

Secondarily, it appears that this Tedric or Derek was the father of a Hugh, who was lord of the honour of Bacton in Norfolk, under the overlordship of the bishop of Norwich.

The Domesday holdings of Theoderic, eventually equating to 13 knights fees in Norfolk and Suffolk, became the Honour of Bacton, which we might think of as an early feudal barony, but one which was held under a bishop rather than directly from the king.

Theoderic is mentioned in Domesday Book (1086), in entries relating to many of the lands held by Walter the Deacon, his brother. In her entry "Petrus de Valognes", Keats-Rohan proposes that this same Theoderic is the Domesday tenant of Peter de Valognes (a Norman) who had possibly died by 1086.^[1]

At Domesday (1086) Walter the Deacon was holding lands mainly in Essex and Suffolk. He also had a tenancy in Norwich, which had been created since 1066, and he had possession of Stratton in Norfolk.^[2] He also had more distant holdings were Sezincote in Gloucestershire and Cerne in Dorset. These last two and a block of mainly Essex holdings were passed on to his family and are considered to have become the early English barony of Little Easton. However, another block of lands especially in Suffolk passed within 30 years of Domesday to William de Bacton, and from him mainly to his step family, the de Valognes. Already at Domesday this second "Bacton fee" was apparently called the land of Theoderic or Tedric, described in Domesday sometimes as both Walter's predecessor and sometimes as his brother.

A detailed transcription of Walter's section in the Essex Domesday can be found in VCH Essex Vol I, pp.547ff. Also see Open Domesday. In Essex Bowers Giffard was held by Walter, but is the land of Tedric. Tedric is not mentioned under Purleigh, Wix, Little Easton, "Fenna" (Stow Maries), Colne Engaine, Little Bromley or Little Chesterford. He also had 5 acres in Brightlingsea.

Similarly, VCH Suffolk Vol I has details for Suffolk Domesday, and here is Walter's Suffolk Open Domesday page. Tedric is not mentioned for Sharpestone or Cotton. The main Suffolk lands of Walter the Deacon are at pp.561-3, "Tedric" or "Teri" is again referred to as brother of Walter, and (under "Weledana") as the "predecessor of Barthetona" which must in context be Bacton,. So Bacton was already being referred to as the reference point for this collection of lands. Furthermore there are several references to Walter holding land in "Tedric's fee" (which for example under Babergh is said to be his brother Tedric's fee).

These Domesday lands of Walter can also be divided up depending upon who the 1066 owner had been. Tedric's fee had belonged to a thegn named Leofwin, who might even have been a father or other close relative of Tedric and Walter.

The national origins of Tedric or Theoderic are unknown. Clarence-Smith p.114 points out that the name Theoderic is unusual for an Englishman or a Frenchman, and would be more typical of the low countries in this period. (Walter is also a name we might expect to find in the Low Countries in this period.)

Research notes

Some different possibilities remain open:

• Walter may simply have been holding the lands of a dead elder brother named Tedric. Perhaps the brother had other heirs who had not yet come of age.
• Theodric (or Tedric), the brother of Walter, may perhaps not be the same as the "antecessor" of Walter (either ancestor or predecessor) who was called Theoderic, and who was also mentioned in at least one place in the Domesday accounts, "Weledana" in Stowmarket.
• In contrast, Tedric in 1086 may also have been the name of a younger brother, whose lands Walter held as a guardian. (He may have had a separate inheritance.) In this case, it seems Tedric the antecessor has to be a distinct older person and not Tedric the brother.

So Walter may that have had two close relatives named Theodric, one younger, one older, and one of them was Walter's brother. For example, one could be a father and the other a brother, or one a brother and the other a nephew. Scholars are uncertain:

• Clark (p.129) proposed for Walter not only a more certain brother named Tedric, but also a less certain father with the same name.
• For similar reasons, Keats-Rohan suggested that Walter's more certain brother ("Theodric [ ]" DP. p.427) might be the dead predecessor, who had a less certain son of the same name who was still alive in 1086.

That there was a surviving line from Theoderic, independent of his brother Walter, seems confirmed by the evidence recited by Dodwell and Clarence Smith. Clarence Smith (p.113), while questioning the wording of his predecessor Dodwell on this matter, nevertheless agrees on a basic point which Keats-Rohan also apparently accepts:

Although it is unfortunately not true to say that "in Domesday Book the lands which Theoderic had held were carefully distinguished from those of his brother," it is true that nothing specifically ascribed to Theoderic or Derek passed to Walter's descendants; and it would be legitimate to guess, even in the absence of all other evidence, that whatever did not pass to Walter's descendants belonged to Derek, Walter being merely in charge during the minority of his heir.

Furthermore:

At the resignation of William de Bacton in favour of his maternal uncle Roger de Valoignes, the Bishop enfeoffed^[3] the latter to hold these fees "as well as ever did Teodericus or his son Hugh." It is therefore quite clear that Derek had been succeeded by his son Hugh; and since William de Bacton had a brother Hugh de Bacton, a monk, it is possible that William was also a son of Derek, having succeeded on his brother's accepting the tonsure.

Keats-Rohan refers to William of Bacton as "William de Bachetun" (DD, p.294), and makes him a grandson of "Petrus de Valonges" (DP, p.322), through his mother "Muriel de Valognes" (DD, p.758) and her first husband, whose name is never mentioned in contemporary documents.

This first husband was, according to this account, probably either Theoderic himself, or a son. Apart from Hugh son of Theoderic, and William of Bacton, Keats-Rohan also lists another apparent descendant as "Willelm filius Theoderici" (DD, p.962) who witnessed the foundation charter of Binham.

Rosie Bevan, in correspondence has suggested that William de Bacton and William son of Theodoric are probably the same person.^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, p.322
2. ↑ See VCH Norfolk Vol I.
3. ↑ Footnote here of Clarence-Smith: "Norwich Cathedral Register III, f.234 v., to be dated between 1121 and 1135, printed at Pipe Rolls Society 36 NS, p.159." The Pipe Roll publication refers to the same one as Dodwell's article.
4. ↑ See Rosie Bevan's Medieval Genealogy post from 2004. https://groups.google.com/g/soc.genealogy.medieval/c/v8KdQqA2zSY/m/20USMeY5MLUJ

• 12th century Hastings Part I, by Andrew Lancaster : https://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/families/Hastings1.html
• PASE project page: http://domesday.pase.ac.uk/Domesday?op=5&personkey=39115
• Andrew Lancaster Hastings families of the 12th century: what is known and what is not, link
• Dodwell, B. (1960) "Some Charters Relating to the Honour of Bacton", A Medieval Miscellany for Doris Mary Stenton.
• Clark, G. T. C. (1869), "The Rise and Race of Hastings" (in 3 parts), Archaeological Journal, Vol. 26. link
• Clarence Smith, J. A. (1968), "Hastings of Little Easton (concluded)", Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society. Vol. 2, Part 2. link
• Keats-Rohan Domesday Descendants
• Round, J. H. (1902), "Castle Guard", Archaeological Journal, Vol. 59, 2nd series, Vol. 9. link
• Round, J. H. (1902), "The Origin of the Fitzgeralds II", The Ancestor, Number 2. link