Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Cottuna 1189 DST

• Cotuna' 1224×44 Spec

• Cotun 1235 Ass

• villata de Cotum et de Aedmundeswille 1245 Ass

• Cotum c.1208×17 Spec 1252 Spec 1313 RPD 1333 Ct 1350 Rot 1382 Hatf

• Cotu' 1263 Salvin

• Cotome 1336 Spec

• Cotom 1344 DST 1362 IPM 1382 Hatf 1430,1464 FPD

• Cotam 1345 Halm

• Cotum Mundeville 1235 Ass

• Cotum Maundevill 1344 RPD

• Cotom Moundevill 1374 IPM

• Cotom-mondevyll 1379 SurteesIII242

• Cotom Mondevill 1391×2 IPM

• Cotom movndvile 1418 Lang

• Cotom Moundvile 1483 IPM

• Cotommondvill 1424 ib

• Cotommondvile 1449,1468 ib

• Cotommondevile 1460 ib

• Cotom Mondevyle 1485,1527 ib

• Cotommoundvyll 1503 ib

• Cotom Moundivile 1518 ib

• Cotom Moundevyle 1519–20,1526 ib

• Cotommondevyle 1524 ib

• Cotom Mondewyle 1529 ib

• Cotom Mondevyll 1549 ib

• Cothome Amundvill 1382 Hatf

• Coton Moundivile 1498 IPM

• Cottom Mondevyle 1548 IPM

• Cottammundivell 1567 IPM

• Cottam Mundivile 1580 Surv

• Cottam Mundavill 1547 ParlSurv

• Cotam Mundeville 1610,1631 IPM

• Cotammundevell 1630 ib

• Cotaham Mundeville 1547 ParlSurv

• Cotonmundill 1675 Ogilby

Etymology

'At the cottages', OE  cot, dative pl. cotum , + manorial addition from the family name Mundeville or Amundaville (Johannes Amundauilla 1116×9 DEC, Robert de Mundaville 1137×40 GD, Robert de Mundevilla 1163×80ib , Amundevilla 1198×1204(p) ib) from Mondeville near Caen (DEC). The estate was part of the wapentake of Sadberge and William de Amundeville held a knight's fee here of the crown 1158×72 (C. T. Clay, 'Notes on the family of Amundeville', AA 4th ser. 24 (1946), 60–70). Some time after 1200 it was purchased by Galfrid Russell, Seneschal of Durham, who was bound to maintain the celebration of mass in the chapel of St Mary Magdalen (Surtees III270).

Attention has recently been drawn to the widespread link between cot -names and medieval boroughs (Christopher Dyer, 'Towns and cottages in eleventh-century England' in Studies in Medieval History Presented to R. H. C. Davis , ed. H. Mayr-Harting and R. I. Moore, London 1985). It seems possible that Coatham lay in a similar relationship to the borough of Darlington, namely as a settlement of small-holders within the penumbra of a major centre of economic influence, gravitating towards it and contributing to its need for commodities and labour and perhaps originating as the result of migration.