Ulf the Fenman

Contributed by John Marlow

At the end of the reign of King Edward the Confessor in January 1066, much of the land in and around Ollerton and Boughton was in the ownership of two powerful thanes as members of the King’s household. Toki, son of Outi, owned a number of Nottinghamshire manors, the most substantial being at Laxton, but his estates were overshadowed by the very extensive holdings of another important man known as Ulf the Fenman. Both Ulf and Toki were of Scandinavian extraction and some historians believe that Ulf’s by-name could indicate that he came from Fjon (Fyn) a large island off the eastern coast of Denmark. Both men were based at Lincoln where they held the rank and distinction of ‘lawman’, but the Domesday Book of 1086 reveals that Ulf had owned estates throughout eleven counties – from Yorkshire in the North to Berkshire in the South.

A summary of English land holdings in 1066 reveals that immediately after the list of the great earldoms, the third largest of the lay estates was owned by Ulf the Fenman at an annual value of £394. As an indication of the vast extent of Ulf’s estates, his part share of Ollerton was worth only two pounds. The Domesday Book does not mention Ulf by name in connection with the holding in Ollerton, which is listed within a bloc of manors given to Gilbert of Ghent at an unknown date before 1086. It is clear that Gilbert had received the bulk of Ulf’s estates from William the Conqueror and his tenant in Ollerton in 1086 was the successor of a man known as Wada. However in neighbouring Boughton, Ulf is named as the pre-conquest owner of half the village lands, with the remainder of his Nottinghamshire estates spreading southwards towards the River Trent.

An examination of Ulf’s agricultural holdings reveals the possession of at least 1100 acres of meadowland lying beside the rivers Trent and Witham, indicating a concentration on livestock farming. The poor quality of arable land in the north of the county may well have encouraged estates at Ollerton and Boughton to be used for sheep or cattle grazing – a practice followed in later centuries by the monks of Rufford in accordance with the Cistercian policy of expanding sheep farming and wool production.

Besides his principal residence at Lincoln, Ulf also had a house at Wallingford in Oxfordshire, and two more at Warwick. Eighteen of the 256 burgesses at Huntingdon owed allegiance to Ulf, and as a mark of his high status, he was a member of a small and select list of thanes enjoying the rare privileges of market rights and legal jurisdiction. All of these powers were lost after the Conquest and Ulf disappears from the historical record, while his son and heir, Swartbrand, managed to retain a few estates close to Lincoln where he held the office of ‘lawman’ in 1086.