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In the beginning
Our story begins in the village of Easton just 6 miles to the west of the ancient City of Norwich.
In the 14th cnetury surnames for those othe rthan the nobility were becoming a commonplace, not least because of the need to identify one villager from another for the purposes of taxation. Names generally took two forms, either that relating to a trade, such as Smith, Tanner, Thatcher or Fletcher; or names pertaining ot a place. The latter, or toponyms, was used most frequently when villagers were identified as bing from elsewhere, so instead of Adam the tanner we might have Adam from Scarborough.
Monks regularly took a surname based on their village of origin as a name taken that was based on their job was bound to be unreliable. The work in a monastery was varied, and the monks had to take their turn at the various tasks, so a monk who might be called Adam the Scrivener one month, could be Adam the Cellerer the next. However nearly all the monks shared the distinction of having been uprooted from their village of origin to join the monastic community, hence the popularity of toponyms amongst the brethren.
Our Adam grew up in the village of Easton, an ancient settlement known since the time of the Danes. The village developed as a small farming community and by the beginning of the fourteenth century under the patronage of the priory of Norwich, but it had never been a substantial settlement. Below the Blomefield, the great historian of Norfolk describes the village and its origins.
The church is dedicated to St Peter who had his gild here and the Blessed Virgin had a guild also kept to her honour in her chapel to the east end of the north aisle, at the west end of which stands the tower which is square and hath three bells.
When Norwich Domesday was wrote, William son of William de Herforth was patron; the rector had a house and 60 acres of glebe which was valued at 10 marks, paid 6s and 8d procurations, 2s synodals, 13d Peter-pence and 10d carvage.
The Manor of Easton was always appendant and belonged to Cossey (now known as Costessey) manor (a couple of miles down the road to Norwich) and was held by divers socmen at the (Domesday) survey, being three quarters of a mile long and five furlongs broad and paid 13d geld.
In the appendix to the Register of the Honour of Richmond under the title of Earl Alan’s lands belonging to Cossey manor, it is said that he had seven socmen in Bereford, Estun and Hunincham and that those three towns were farmed by those socmen. These socmen were the only tenants to the lords and had no right in the lands they farmed but were removed whenever the lords pleased; it contained the whole town and advowson and went with the manor of Cossey to which it belongs to this day.
From "An Essay towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk" by Francis Blomefield
| Link to Easton Parish Church site |