Description:The Will of Wulfric Spot pre-dates Domesday Book (written in 1086) by some 80 years, the will is a crucial source for the study of place-names both in Staffordshire and surrounding counties, and so is vital to the study of Staffordshire in pre-conquest England. It also provides the context for the establishment of one the most important pre-Conquest religious institutions in the Midlands. Little is known of when Wulfric Spot was born, where he lived, nor can we even be certain when he died.
The manuscript, which preserves the text of both the will and its Royal confirmation in 1004, was written at Burton although the exact date is not known. It was presumably written at Burton by a single scribe who wrote in a uniform hand throughout.
Visually the manuscript can be divided into three sections, in fact it is two documents written on one piece of parchment.
• The first part of the manuscript is the Charter (in Latin) of Aethelred, it confirms the grant by Wulfric Spot of possessions in the counties of Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Warwickshire for the foundation of Burton Abbey.
• The signatures in the central part of the manuscript list Aethelred himself as well as two Archbishops, ten Bishops, twelve Abbots, four “Duces” and twenty one “Ministri” or thegns.
• The will of Wulfric (in Anglo-Saxon) occupies the final third of the document.
The manuscript, which preserves the text of both the will and its Royal confirmation in 1004, was written at Burton although the exact date is not known. It was presumably written at Burton by a single scribe who wrote in a uniform hand throughout. The will is written in iron gall ink on sheepskin parchment with initial letters highlighted in red (Vermilion) and blue (Indigo) pigments.