Lady Wulfrun of Mercia [8124] ¹⁹⁵¹

   FamilySearch ID: GT3W-6N3.

  General Notes:

Wulfrun(a) (c. 935-c. 1005) was a Mercian noblewoman and landowner who held estates in Staffordshire.

Today she is particularly remembered for her association with Heatun, Anglo-Saxon for "high or principal farm or enclosure", which she was granted in a charter by King Æthelred II (Æthelred the Unready) in 985, and where she endowed a collegiate church in 994. By 1070 this had become known as Wolvrenehamptonia \endash Wolfrun's heaton \endash now the city of Wolverhampton, the sixth largest district by population in the West Midlands.

Her lands may have been inherited from Wulfsige the Black, who was granted lands by King Edmund in 942, some of which correspond with lands later endowed by Wulfrun, and some with lands described in the will of her son Wulfric. Wulfsige may thus have been her father.

  Death Notes:

Her exact death date is unknown, but a reference however can be found in a charter to Ensham Monastery dating to 1005 which states that Wulfrun bequested land at Ramsey (now located in Cambridgeshire), being "at her last breath", indicating that she died shortly after the charter was written, sometime in 1005,[1]

A now outdated source states that she died in Tamworth in 995 or 996,[2] although she was probably alive until 1005.[1]

  Noted events in her life were:

1. Captured: By the Danes, in 943, in Tamworth, , Staffordshire, England. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles record her being seized by Vikings in 943.

2. Land Grant: in 985, in Wolverhampton, , Staffordshire, England. Her lands included "a Heantun" Saxon for high place. Wulfrun was granted the land by King Æthelred II (Æthelred the Unready) by Royal Charter in 985.

3. Endowment: Saint Mary at Hamtun, in 994, in Wolverhampton, , Staffordshire, England. The plaque in St Peter's Collegiate Church states:
in the year of our Lord 994, and in the reign of Æthelred II, noble matron WULFRUN Endowed the ancient Monastry of S. Mary at HAMTUN With lands at Earn-ieie, Kynwaldes-tun, Bilsetna-tun, willan-hale, Wednesfeld, Peoles-hale, Oegintun, Hiltune, (altera), Feotherstun
SIGERIC Arch Bishop of Cantebury ÆLFHEAD Bishop of Lichfield.

4. She owned Wulfrun bequeathed lands to Ramsey Abbey in 1005 in Ramsey, , Huntingdonshire, England. In 1005 Wulfrun bequeathed lands to Ramsey Abbey, being described in the charter as at her last breath, so she probably died that year. (Ramsey Abbey, Ramsey, Huntingdon PE26 1DH, England.)

Wulfrun married.