English Place-name Society

Survey of English Place-Names

A county-by-county guide to the linguistic origins of England’s place-names – a project of the English Place-Name Society, founded 1923.

Adventurers' Land

Early-attested site in the Parish of Wisbech St Mary

Historical Forms

  • Adventurers Land c.1840 TA

Etymology

Adventurers' Land is Adventurers Land c. 1840TA . “the said Earl (of Bedford) undertook so great a work upon the confidence he had of the aid and assistance therein from divers other gentlemen, who by his good example and encouragement would become adventurers with him…proportion of land to be allotted…in recompense…shall be divided into 20 whole shares, of which shares the said Earl of Bedford doth agree to adventure for two whole shares…” (1631 BedL ii, 113).Adventurers ' because they adventured their capital as distinct from the undertakers who undertook the actual draining. Cf. The Undertakers supra 151.