I-Y33765 draft tree December 23rd 2020

This is our latest draft phylogenetic tree for I-Y33765.  

The chart includes information from a FTDNA Big Y-700 test that has recently been completed on the Swedish arm of I-Y33765. This is the seventh Big Y test to have been completed within the I-Y33765 clade.This analysis for Mr Hallberg has identified five novel variants on his branch downstream from FT250135 (8564554, 8595182, 8603627, 15419322 and 17156586).  It seems possible that Dahlberg IN81271 may be derived for one or more of these novel SNPs.  Two earlier Big Y-700 tests on the Swedish arm, Eklund IN78306 and Jacobsson IN70815, have five and four novel variants respectively.

On the English arm, the FTDNA Big Y-700 test for Clement IN82043, which was completed in October, showed four novel variants.  One of these was at the position of a SNP that had been named Z22427 in 2015.  FTDNA initially identified the Clement polymorphism as Z22427 and this is how it was shown on the previous I-Y33765 draft tree dated November 7th, 2020 . However, while the Z22427 mutation is G > T, the Clement variant is G > A, and as a consequence, FTDNA have subsequently named this variant, FT374048.  Following my suggestion Yseq have designed primers for FT374048 and for another of the IN82043 novel variants, which has also been named, this time by YFull, as Y223449.  Clements YS32054 is currently being tested for both these SNPs at YSeq. 

Click on chart to enlarge

I-Y33765 draft tree November 12th 2020

This is our latest draft phylogenetic tree for I-Y33765.  

The chart includes 6 new SNPs common to the English arm of I-Y33765. These have recently been identified and named by FTDNA (FT310619; FT314713; FT314945; FT321056; FT324244) and YFull (Y207591) from comparison of Big Y-700 data for FTDNA kit numbers 236748 and IN82043.  This means that at present there are 19 phylogenetically significant mutations on the English arm and this total is approximately twice the number so far identified on the Swedish arm.  At present the reason for this difference in mutation frequency is unclear but I intend to explore some possible explanations in a future article.

FTDNA consider that one of their new SNPs, FT310619, is the confirmed haplogroup for Clement IN82043.  Prior to identifying their five new SNPs they had used Y33767 as the confirmed haplogroup for Clement IN82043 and this is shown on our latest I-Y33765 tree (below).  As FT310619 and Y33767 are phyloequivalent either designation is valid at present. In this connection Bernie Cullen (I2a Project activity feed, 10 November 2020) has observed "These SNPs are equivalent, maybe FTDNA prefers to use FT series SNPs to name branches." It seems to me that as Y33767 was identified and named by YFull in 2017, but FTDNA has only just named FT310619, the earlier YFull SNP designation is more appropriate for the branch name. From his Big Y-700 analysis Clement IN82043 also has one private variant (Hg38, 15198490) and this has now been named Y223449 by YFull.

Within the past few days Yseq have tested Clements YS32054 for the Y33767 SNP and have confirmed his status is derived (+).    This finding supports my hypothesis the Clement/s lineages on the English arm share a most recent common ancestor who was living in north Somerset, perhaps in the Chew valley, towards the close of the fifteenth century.  

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I-Y33765 draft tree November 1st 2020

This is our latest draft phylogenetic tree for I-Y33765.  

The chart includes information for SNPs following the completion of a Big Y-700 analysis for Clement IN82043 and confirmation for Clement YS32045 of his derived status for Y33765 following a YSeq assay for that SNP.

On the Swedish, FT250135, arm of I-Y33765 Mr Hallberg has recently ordered a FTDNA Big Y-700 analysis.  This is the third Big Y-700 test on this branch and will be helpful in improving age estimates for the divergence between our four Swedish lineages which are, at present, largely based on STR results.  Also, on the English, Y33767 arm of I-Y33765 we intend shortly to test Clements YS32054 for the Y33767 SNP at YSeq.  At present we speculate that his lineage (as implied by the chart) has also diverged at Y33767.

The dates included are based either on the YFull age estimation methodology or on FTDNA TiP estimates or on known dates from documented genealogy.  The estimated dates are only a very approximate guide to the age of branches and are most likely to have significant  errors.  The dates of branches will probably be revised in subsequent drafts.

 Click on chart to enlarge

Exploring a coincidence -- Part 2:The cult of Clement in south west England

In the previous article I introduced the importance of the cult of St Clement for Viking dynasties during the eleventh century.  In England the cult seems to have had special significance in the half century between the accession of King Cnut and the Norman Conquest.  You may recall I have suggested that it was during this period the English I-Y33765 lineage originated from a Scandinavian man who was in some way involved with a cluster of seven north Somerset manors. In 1066 these manors were owned by four Scandinavian landowners, who were each characterized as “the Dane” by the scribe who compiled the Domesday record. So it seems the logical place to look for evidence of the cult of Clement would be in these manorial locations. For instance were any Anglo Scandinavian churches dedicated to the saint in these manors during the eleventh century?  The answer at first sight is sadly no.  All seven locations now have parish churches whose oldest surviving parts were built after the end of Anglo-Danish rule in England, sometime between 1100-1300, and whose dedications are to different saints none of whom are St Clement (see table).   

Church foundation dates and dedications in the seven parishes corresponding to the Scandinavian owned manors in north Somerset as recorded in Domesday

Indeed, medieval churches and chapels dedicated to St Clement, south west of the Thames, are very few (Crawford, 2008a, 2008b) (see map below). There are none in Somerset or Gloucestershire apart from the example in the city of Bristol. Here the chapel dedicated to St Clement is not relevant to our exploration because it was not founded until the end of the medieval period (see photograph below).  Consequently it is later than dates at which the Clement surname is already documented in north Somerset (circa 1303) and so had no influence on the popularity of the name. 

 Medieval churches dedicated to St Clement in the south-west of England.  St Clement, Powderham, Devon is in a manor owned by Tholf the Dane who also owned Tickenham in north Somerset.

Plaque on the site of the former Chapel of St Clement which stood in Princes Street near the quay in Bristol.  It seems this was not founded until the fifteenth century. 

A less obvious, but it seems to me, very significant link between the Somerset Scandinavian manors and St Clement is through the church dedicated to him at Powderham, near Exeter, Devon (see map above). From the Domesday record, in 1066, the manor of Powderham was owned by Tholf “the Dane” and importantly he also owned one of the seven north Somerset manors, namely Tickenham. 

Tholf was a substantial landowner in Wessex owning eighteen manors spread across five counties which were assessed at over 100 hides and worth £95 (see map).   

Wessex manors owned by Tholf the Dane in 1066

According to PASE (2020) the form of his name ”is characteristic of Denmark” and  “he was among the Danes settled in the heart of Wessex by the Danish kings of the earlier eleventh century”.  Among the Scandinavian owners of the north Somerset manors he is by far the wealthiest and the extent of his wealth would have given political influence.  Lewis (2016) classified Tholf as a “Great Landowner” and among this category “Tholf was the wealthiest great landowner whose property was confined to Wessex, with a value that made him almost as significant as any of the Danish magnates who had land there” and ”Tholf the Dane is likely to have been a first or at most second generation newcomer to Wessex”. In other words he was most probably a member of Cnut’s ruling Danish elite.  According to Crawford (2006) the hegemony of this group depended on trade and travel “Their lives were dominated by the sea and they needed a saintly protector to whom they could call- and to whom they could give thanks- for safe travel over water” “For this very reason the cult of Clement is likely to have played an important role in the daily activities of the king and his following”.      

While the present church at Powderham was not built until1258 it seems likely there had “been a little Saxon church on the site” (Anon, 2011) and Tholf’s political credentials make it entirely possible that this chapel would also have been dedicated to Clement.  After all the site on the banks of the Exe estuary in the “promontory reclaimed from the marsh” (Domesday Old English, 1086;  polra + hamm) would be entirely appropriate for a saint who preserved those threatened by water.  At the very least this connection between Powderham and Tickenham is useful circumstantial evidence that some of those “Danes” living in the Somerset manors had direct experience of St Clement and his cult. 

Also, three of the Scandinavian manors; Clevedon, Yatton and Tickenham were, during the Dark Ages, liable to frequent inundation from the Severn Estuary and all three may have had earlier churches associated with the sites of their later Norman buildings.  The dedications of these earlier churches were probably different from those used later so it is not impossible that one of these manors may have had an Anglo-Scandinavian church that was dedicated to Clement.  The very unusual dedication at Tickenham, to St Quincus & St Julietta, is of Norman origin and would definitely not have been the dedication of an earlier church on that site.  Barbara Crawford (2008a; 2008b) has noted that many churches originally dedicated to Clement were subsequently rededicated to other saints as the cult of St Clement became less popular (see St Nicholas, Bristol, below).

Manors owned by John the Dane in 1066. He was "Lord" in those shown with a light blue symbol.  One of these is Yatton in north Somerset.

The manors of Clevedon and Yatton were owned by John "the Dane".  Like Tholf he too was also classed by Lewis (2016) as a "Great Landowner" with 50 hides of land in seven manors across four shires of Wessex (Devon, Somerset, Dorset and Gloucestershire}.  According to PASE (2020) "His centre of operations may have been Yatton in Somerset, and there is some evidence of a connection with Bishop Giso of Wells (1060–88) (who acquired Yatton after 1066), through John’s probable son Northmann (fl. 1065–72). On balance John was probably the same person as John the sheriff who had an interest in a small estate across the Wye from Hereford and was probably sheriff of Herefordshire." From this biography we have another Scandinavian landowner in the north Somerset manors who seems to have been very much part of the Anglo-Scandinavian ruling elite.  The office of county sheriff was the highest official under the king in that county.  Also, because of our particular interest in church dedications it may be relevant that John has an unusual (for an eleventh century Dane resident in England) biblical name and that he may also have had a connection with the local Bishop.  Could this indicate a particularly devout family that would consequently be more inclined to found a church or chapel?  All the pre-Norman Conquest instances of the name John in Domesday refer to John "the Dane" and PASE (2020) notes  "It is almost as surprising to find it [John] as the name of a Danish layman as it would be of an Englishman". So maybe it was at John's Clevedon or Yatton manor that an early wooden church was dedicated to Clement.

As mentioned above, the port at Bristol was part of the Scandinavian trading network and a growing urban centre in the eleventh century. It had a chapel dedicated to Clement by the 15^th century but it seems rather strange there is no record of any such dedication before that date. This is the more so because of Barbara Crawford’s (2008a) description of a “typical” Clement church in England as follows; “it is the link with urban centres that is most striking” and a “strong association with the sea and with the Danish trading community” and “very often it is located at the end of the bridge or river crossing”. Taken together these criteria would seem to fit Bristol rather well and in particular one church site in the medieval port, that of St Nicholas which was by the city gate adjacent to the bridge (see map below) from which the settlement took its name (Domesday Old English, 1086;“Assembly place by the bridge”  brycg + stow).  The dedication here may be significant as St Clement’s role as patron saint for sailors and those traveling across water was superseded by that of St Nicholas after the enshrining of the latter’s relics at Bari, Italy in 1070 (Crawford, 2006).  So, as almost nothing is known about churches in Bristol prior to the Norman Conquest, it seems possible that a Saxon church on the site of the twelfth century Norman foundation dedicated to St Nicholas may well have been dedicated to Clement.  In this connection it is worth noting that Tholf’s manors at Tickenham and Powderham were 14.5km and 9km respectively from the significant Viking ports at Bristol and Exeter.  It has been suggested (Lewis,2016) that Tholf’s acquisition of these manors close to the two largest towns west of Winchester  “may well have been deliberate policy, and the manors may have been associated with urban property which was simply not recorded in Domesday book”. As Powderham and Exeter each contained a church dedicated to Clement perhaps if Tholf had trading interests through the port of Bristol he would have founded a chapel to that “sailors” saint at Tickenham too.

 

 

The Norman St Nicholas Church was founded in the 12th century and dedicated to St Nicholas as the patron saint of seafarers.  It stood at the northern end of Bristol bridge by the harbour and town gate.  It was on the route into Bristol for those coming from Somerset and from the Scandinavian manors.  Could an Anglo-Scandinavian chapel on this site have been dedicated to St Clement, the sailor's patron saint in the late Viking Age?

So it seems to me there are several reasons why we may surmise a connection between the cult of Clement and the Scandinavian manors of north Somerset.  Certainly two of the landowners had status and wealth that would make it feasible they may have founded a chapel to this Viking saint in the area.  But, even if that were so, how might this be connected with the association of St Clement's name with the I-Y33765 SNP?  Well, because it is a saint's name we should assume Clement was "chosen" or "bestowed" as a family name to honour the saint and aspects of his cult (Hanks & Hodges, 1988). Since this is the case perhaps, in the two centuries between 1066 and the end of the 12^th century, descendants of the I-Y33765 patriarch were inclined to adopt the saint’s name because of its perceived link with missionary zeal or with the Scandinavian Christianity of their ancestral line or perhaps with the protection Clement brought to those in peril at sea?   Implicit in this theory is the notion that these descendants and also their close community retained some awareness of their Scandinavian origins for perhaps eight generations.  While Anglo-Scandinavian personal names have been recorded in the south west of England during the Norman period (Higham, 2020) it is hard to judge the plausibility of such assumptions.  On the other hand, if there is no basis for my idea that some ancestral awareness motivated descendants of our patriarch, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, to adopt the Clement surname then the coincidence of their choice seems rather remarkable given the explicit Scandinavian context we have discovered for the St Clement cult.

Consequently it seems to me most plausible that the Clement surname, which is shared by English men who are derived for the I-Y33765 Y-DNA marker, became their hereditary family name precisely because it was the name of a saint honoured in the Anglo-Scandinavian communities in which their ancestors lived during the 11^th century.

References

Anon, (2011) St Clement's Church, Powderham 1259-2011, Powderham PPC 8pp

Crawford, B.E.(2006) The Cult of St Clement in Denmark, Historie, p235-282

Crawford, B.E (2008a) The Saint Clement dedications at Clementhorpe and Pontefract Castle: Anglo-Scandinavian or Norman?, in Myth, Rulership, Church and Charters: Essays in Honour of Nicholas Brooks Ed. Julia Barrow, Andrew Wareham, Ashgate Publishing, p 189-210 

Crawford, B.E (2008b) The Churches Dedicated to St. Clement in Medieval England. A Hagio-geography of the Seafarer´s Saint in 11th Century North Europe. St. Petersburg: Axioma, 237 pp.

Hanks, P. & Hodges, F.(1988) The Oxford Dictionary of Surnames, Oxford University Press

Highham, R. (2020) The Godwins,Towns and St Olaf Churches: Comital Investment in the Mid-11th Century, in The Land of the English Kin, Studies in Wessex & Anglo-Saxon England in honour of Professor Barabara Yorke, p467-513

Lewis, C.P. (2016) Danish Landowners in Wessex in 1066, in Danes in Wessex, Eds Ryan Lavelle & Simon Roffey, Oxbow Books, p 172-211

PASE (2020) Prosopography of Anglo Saxon England, http://www.pase.ac.uk/

Exploring a coincidence -- Part1:The cult of St Clement and Viking ruling elites

The conventional explanation for the origin of the Clement hereditary surname in England is that it developed from the personal name Clement which itself became adopted in the late Anglo-Saxon period because of the popularity of the early Christian saint, Clement (Reaney, 1967; Hanks & Hodges, 1988). To date in England the I-Y33765 mutation has only been confirmed in men with this surname whose direct-line male ancestry is from rural parishes surrounding the port city of Bristol. As I have discussed in earlier articles on this blog, the genetic evidence from four FTDNA Big Y tests suggests that the I-Y33765 SNP formed in southern Scandinavia during the first Viking age and was subsequently brought to England in the early eleventh century by a Swedish mercenary who was possibly in the service of Cnut the Great. In this article and in the next I want to explore why the English descendants of this Scandinavian Viking seem to have adopted the hagionym of a 1st century martyred Pope as their family name.  

  

 The martyrdom of Pope Clement, circa 100AD 

To begin I intend to give a summary of the Clement cult and it's significance for Viking ruling elites.  Early Christian records suggest Clement was the third Pope, and probably the only one appointed by St Peter.  He was martyred at the end of the first century by being thrown into the Sea of Azov, Crimea, tied to a ships anchor.  Here it is worth stressing that his exile from Rome to Crimea and his subsequent martyrdom were both results of his exceptional ability to convert pagans to Christianity which made him unpopular with the Roman authorities.  Almost eight centuries after his death, in 867-8, St Cyril and St Methodius brought the supposed remains of Clement to Rome where they were enshrined in the Basilica of San Clemente.   Because of the manner of his martyrdom St Clement became regarded as the patron of sailors and those in peril of drowning.

 

Interior of the Basilica San Clemente, Rome.  The saints supposed relics are enshrined under the high alter.  The inset image is of a Ukrainian coin minted in 2006.  It shows Prince Vladimir holding a model of his Tithe Church in which he enshrined relics of St Clement at Kiev. 

The next important element of the story is that in the late tenth and eleventh century the cult of St Clement became very influential among the ruling Viking elites in Ukraine, Norway, England and Denmark. 

This process began when Prince Vladimir of the Kievan Rus acquired other putative remains of St Clement from Crimea and housed these in 996 at his Tithe Church in Kiev (Garipzanov, 2013).  In this way Vladimir hoped to use the cult of St Clement to suggest the status of Kiev was on a par with that of Rome, by its possession and veneration of the remains of a Pope appointed by St Peter himself.  Vladimir may also have thought that Clement's proven missionary prowess might assist him with the conversion of his Slav subjects.  However in addition the Kievan rulers actions introduced the cult to Scandinavian Varangian (aka Viking) merchants and mercenaries who frequented his capital while journeying along the river network that connected the Baltic and Black Sea.   

The Norwegian ruling dynasty of Olaf Trygvasson and his grandson Olaf Haraldsson, who both had close connections with the Kievan Rus, in turn brought the cult to Norway (possibly with more supposed relics) by founding churches dedicated to St Clement at Olso (Liden, 2007) and at Trondheim. The remains of the wooden church at Trondheim were discovered and excavated in 2016 (see illustration).  Dendrochronology of surviving timbers has shown that trees used in the construction were felled in 1008-9AD.  

Excavation in 2016 of Church of St Clement, Trondheim, Norway (top) and remains of Church of St Clement, Oslo, Norway (bottom) 

Further, it seems likely that at about this time St Clement became more broadly identified with the newly Christian political elites across Scandinavia possibly because of the saint’s supposed ability to both achieve Christian conversion among pagans and to protect those traveling by water (Crawford, 2008a). Clearly these dual characteristics would make Clement an attractive guardian for any newly Christianized Viking whether he should be a humble mercenary or a mighty Sea King.

Olaf Haraldsson eventually became King of Norway in 1015 but his reign was ended in 1029 when Cnut the Great invaded his country.  Olaf escaped via Sweden and went into a short exile in Kiev but in 1030 was killed trying to regain his Norwegian throne at the Battle of Stiklestad.  He was subsequently declared a saint in 1164 and still has great significance for the Norwegian national identity.  

Church of St Jorgensbjerg, Roskilde, Denmark.  Originally dedicated to St Clement and dating from 1030-35 during the reign of Cnut the Great

It has been suggested (Crawford, 2006) that, as part of Cnut the Greats political struggle to control Norway, he decided to actively introduce the Clement cult, possibly from his English realm, into his Danish kingdom. This view seems particularly well supported by the early dedications to the saint at the churches founded in Lund and Roskilde. The date of the Roskilde Clement church can be estimated from a coin hoard probably deposited at its foundation.  The English, Danish and German coins in the hoard suggest the building was built around 1030 and so definitely during Cnut’s reign and concurrent with his Norwegian campaign. Hence this indicates that there was also a “battle” for St Clement patronage between Danish and Norwegian dynasties at a time of existential conflict.  Cnut's eventual military victory being proof that his claim had found favour with a martyred Pope and his desire to demonstrate this saintly approval underlines the importance of St Clement to these Scandinavian rulers and to their followers during the eleventh century.

The number of medieval churches dedicated to St Clement in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and England is also interesting in this regard.  In Denmark twenty six examples are known, in Norway six, Sweden just one (at Visby, Gotland) but in England nearly fifty (Crawford, 2006).  In a comprehensive ten year study of the cult of St Clement in Scandinavia and in England Barbara Crawford (2008b) has examined the hypothesis that the growth of the Clement cult in England was directly linked to the ruling Danish royal dynasty and its followers.  From her findings it does appear that some dedications can be linked to patronage by the Danish elite following Cnut’s accession to the English crown in 1016. This is another element of the cults history that is important for the speculations that follow.

At this point it seems to me, we can begin to see the possible significance of the coincidence which prompted this discussion.   Namely, that we have a group of English men who share a Viking age Y-DNA mutation, I-Y33765, that was brought from Scandinavia to England by a follower of the Danish ruling dynasty and now we have seen that this group of I-Y33765 men also share a surname, Clement, that originates  from the name of a saint whose cult was apparently popular with the aforementioned ruling elite.   There is little doubt that for both mutation and family name to be found in the south west of England supposedly linked by the eleventh century Anglo-Scandinavian ruling class is an intriguing coincidence but is it anything more? It seems to me that at the distance of a millennium this curiosity is an unexpected discovery that is well worth fuller exploration.

In the next article I intend to present some evidence for the cult of St Clement in the environs of eleventh century Bristol where I suspect our Scandinavian Y-DNA eventually became paired with the hagionym and produced our Clement family identity at sometime around the middle of the thirteenth century.   

References

Crawford, B.E.(2006) The Cult of St Clement in Denmark, Historie, p235-282

Crawford, B.E (2008a) The Saint Clement dedications at Clementhorpe and Pontefract Castle: Anglo-Scandinavian or Norman?, in Myth, Rulership, Church and Charters: Essays in Honour of Nicholas Brooks Ed. Julia Barrow, Andrew Wareham, Ashgate Publishing, p 189-210 

Crawford, B.E (2008b) The Churches Dedicated to St. Clement in Medieval England. A Hagio-geography of the Seafarer´s Saint in 11th Century North Europe. St. Petersburg: Axioma, 237 pp.

Garipzanov, I.H (2013) The Journey of St Clement’s Cult from the Black Sea to the
Baltic Region, in From Goths to Varangians. Communication and Cultural Exchange
between the Baltic and the Black Sea, Ed. Line Bjerg, John H. Lind, and Søren M.
Sindbæk, Aarhus University Press, p 369–80.  

Hanks, P. & Hodges, F.(1988) The Oxford Dictionary of Surnames, Oxford University Press

Liden, H-E (2007) The Church of St Clement in Oslo, in West over Sea. Studies in Scandinavian Sea‐Borne Expansion and Settlement  Before 1300.  A Festschrift in honour  of Dr Barbara E.Crawford , Ed. Beverley Ballin Smith, Simon Taylor and Gareth Wells, Leiden and Boston, Brill.  The Northern World, 31 p 251-2

Reaney,P.H.(1967) The Origin of English Surnames, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London