Eadnoth "the Staller" of Somerset

   Other names for Eadnoth were Alnoth of Somerset and Elnoth of Somerset.

  General Notes:

~Cokayne's Complete Peerage, 2nd Edition, (Berkeley), Vol.II, p. 124, footnote (d), Eadnoth, "Staller" to King Harold and to Edward the Confessor, father of Harding, and grandfather of Robert Fitz Harding, Lord of Berkeley.

~In the Great Governing Families of England, p. 213, The authors despute that Eadnoth was the father Harding on the basis that Robert Fitz Harding acquired his land through purchase rathern than having a landed proprietor that someone placed as Elnoth the Staller. They also state that Harding was of Danish origin. ^141,899

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ¹²⁷¹
At the time of the Conquest the later manor of Merriott formed two estates. The second estate, of five hides, occupied in 1066 by Godwin, had passed by 1086 to Harding son of Eadnoth the staller.

~A History of the County of Somerset, Volume IV, p. 53

In 1086 there were three separate estates called Lopen. The largest, of 2 hides, had been held T.R.E. by Tofig the sheriff, and in 1086 was in the possession of a king's thegn, the Englishman Harding son of Eadnoth the Staller.

~A History of the County of Somerset, Vol. IV, 163-170

• Background Information. ¹²⁸²
Eadnoth, the earliest known ancestor of the family, was an Anglo Thane, called Dapifer, Constable, and Stallere under the Confessor, and Stallere under Harold and the Conqueror, according to Domesday. In some passages of that record his name is written as Eniod, Alnod, and Elnod. After the defeat at Senlac in 1066, the sons of Harold, viz., Godwine, Eadmund, and Magnus, retired to the south-western part of the kingdom, and making havoc in Somerset in 1068, were attacked by Eadnod, the Stallere, commanding the men of Somerset. Though a drawn battle ensued, Eadnoth was slain, and his estates in Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Wilts were, by a general grant from the Conqueror, given to Earl Hugh (of Chester) [Eyton's Analysis and Digest of the Domesday Survey of Somerset].

~Genealogy of the Somersetshire Family of Meriet, pp. 2 & 5

• Web Reference: Earliest Recorded History - Meriet.
The name of Merriott derives from "Maergeat", meaning boundary gate. The boundary was the line of the River Parrett, along which Saxon invaders were halted in 658 AD. The triangle of roads - Broadway, Lower Street and Church Street, enclose about 30 acres of land which was communally cultivated from before the Norman Conquest in 1066. Merriott belonged to an Anglo-Saxon family with large holdings in Somerset, Wiltshire & Devon. The head of the family in 1066 was Eadnoth the Staller - Master of the King's Horse - Sheriff, and Commander of the Men of Somerset. He died in 1068, fighting the sons of King Harold, and William the Conqueror confiscated his lands and divided them up - part of Merriott going to the Count de Mortain, and the Manor later to Eadnoth's son, Heardinc (or Harding). Heardinc founded the de Meriet family, following the prevailing fashion of taking the name of the manor as a surname. The village of Merriott is noted in the Domesday Book - a survey of England drawn up by order of William the Conqueror in 1086.