Husmerae

The Husmerae were a tribe or clan in Anglo-Saxon England, possibly forming an early settlement of the Hwicce subkingdom. The Husmerae settled on the banks of the River Stour, prior to 736.^[1] They probably took their name from Usmere, a pool on the boundary of Wolverley whose name in preserved in Ismere House in Churchill, Worcestershire.^[2]

The tribe is mentioned only in the Ismere Diploma of 734, and subsequent charters relating to the same property until 964, when Usmere occurs on the boundary of Cookley in Wolverley.^[1][3] This charter was for the foundation of a coenubium (minster). That minster was probably at Kidderminster, quite probably occupying the site of the parish church there.^[4]

Although the Husmerae may have been of West Saxon origin, settling into the area some time after the West Saxon defeat of the Britons at the Battle of Dyrham in 577, the Ismere Diploma suggests that Husmerae is the ancient name for area, although uncertainty over its provenance leave the origins of the name open to question ^[5]

References

1. 1 2 Victoria County History, Worcestershire III
2. ↑ D. Hooke, Worcestershire Anglo-Saxon Charter-bounds (Boydell, Woodbridge, 1990), 61-3.
3. ↑ D. Hooke, Worcestershire Anglo-Saxon Charter-bounds, 169-74.
4. ↑ P. W. King, 'The minster aet Sture in Husmere and the northern boundary of the Hwicce' Transactions of Worcestershire Archaeological Society 3rd ser. 15 (1996), 73-4.
5. ↑ John Blair, The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society (New York, Oxford University Press, 2005).