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Woltun might well write it Waltham. Nor is it unusual
for the syllable "ham" to creep into names in which it has no
proper place. Thus, Cobbecumbe, Ranecumbe and Shillinghell have become
Coakham, Rankham and Shillingham. Bossingcamp has become Bossingham and
Coppingebury Cobhambury. A still more surprising and apposite example is
modern Walthamstowe for ancient Wilcumstowe. Actual instances of -tun
becoming -ham are hard to find but Cotham (D.B. Cotune) near Newark, and
Smeetham (D.B. Smedetuna) in Essex, for which I am indebted to Ekwall's Dictionary
of Place-Names, seem to be examples. We may therefore feel that we
have overcome that objection to its occupying a subordinate manorial
position at an early date which is inherent in the name Waltham.
We have yet to show that Waltham alias Woltune was
ever called suth-tun, although there is no doubt that its position in
the parent manor would justify the name. The most cogent evidence of
this dual name is the presence of this Sutton Hook Wood in a position
which obviously relates it to the early settlement around the church of
Waltham. It is therefore concluded that the Sutton of Sutton Hook Wood
was Waltham itself, the suth-tun of Petham.
7. SUTH-TUN IN CHILHAM.
This is no longer to be found on the map under this name
but is cited as a boundary of Godmersham in the charter |
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already quoted. The other boundaries leave little
doubt of the general position of this suth-tun which seems now to be
represented by East Stour Farm. This later name indicates a farm to the
immediate east of the River Stour and is a descriptive name of a sort
which might easily displace an earlier suth-tun. In this case Chilham
was presumably the head manor, whose records, alas, were almost all
destroyed in the recent fire at Chilham Castle.
DEDUCTIONS.
It is a great temptation to eke out this meagre list of
Suttons with some notice of those occurring in other counties. But the
writer has no sufficient evidence available and must content himself
with a single example. The Royal Family of East Anglia are known to have
had their residence at Rendlesham in Suffolk but the mounds of their
ship burials are on a bluff over-looking the river at Sutton, some four
miles to the south. Even on this evidence, and without any knowledge of
local manorial history, it seems almost certain that this was the
suth-tun of the Royal Manor of Rendlesham.
We must now see what we can deduce from the scanty evidence of our
earliest history which bears on the question of the name suth-tun and
how we are to ascertain its full meaning. The following |