Ripton
Major Settlement in the Parish of Abbot's and King's Ripton
Historical Forms
- Riptune 1086 DB
- Ripetona c.1139 BM
- Ripton Abbatis, Ripton Regis 1163 P 1227 Ass
- Ripton Magna 1231 FF
- Rupton 1209 For
- Ripptune 1253 BM
- Kyngesripton 1381 Cl
- Ripton Abbottes al. Saynt John's Ripton 1579 FF
- Rippon 1675 Ogilby
Etymology
Skeat suggests that this name contains the gen. sg. of an OE pers. name Rippa inferred from Rippanleah (KCD 1031), now Ripley (Db) and entering into Ripley (Db, Y). The fact, however, that in all the forms of Ripton that have been noted, with one solitary exception, there is no trace of any vowel between the p and the t seems definitely to rule out this explanation. More probably we should connect it with Ripe (Sx) for which Roberts (PN Sx) gives forms Ripe , Ripp , Ryppe , Rype .Much more important is the fact that it is almost certainly to be identified with the 'silbam qui appellatur Ripp' of an original 8th cent. charter (BCS 160) in which the wood is clearly not far from the Sussex border. The Riptons are in what was clearly once well-wooded land and there can be little doubt that this tun takes its name from another 'wood called Ripp .'Jellinghaus (Anglia , xx. 311) followed by Moorman (PN West Riding 157) would associate it with Hripum , the early name for Ripon (Y), but seeing how early the form Ripp is, this does not seem very likely. (The form Rhipp quoted by them from BCS 161 is from a 12th cent. copy.)
The ultimate affinities of this name are obscure. It is clearly the same as the Rip mons which Förstemann (PN 598) associates with places called Ripanhorst , Rippenhorst (note the association with woodland) and with LGer riep , 'shore, slope,' East Frisian ripe , 'edge,' and a hill-name 'Auf dem Riepen .' These again are related to ON rípr , 'crag.' There can be little doubt that some word from this same stock was found in OE , for we have in the dialect of Kent and Sussex the word ripe , meaning 'shore, bank.'On the topographical side we may note that Ripe (Sx) is on a small but well-marked ridge rising above marshy ground and that the wood from which the Riptons seem to have taken their name must have been on relatively high ground which, a couple of miles to the north, falls to the fen-level. Another trace of the woodland which lies behind these two names is the field-name Ripthornes , quoted under Broughton supra 206 n. 1. That parish borders on Ripton. The length of the vowel in these words is not certain, and on the whole it would seem best to assume words from different grades with long and short vowels respectively.
King's Ripton was a royal manor included in the Domesday description of Hartford, Abbot's Ripton was held by the Abbot of Ramsey and later passed into the possession of the St John family. Abbot's Ripton was Magna Ripton (VCH ). Corresponding to the two manors we have in 1209 (For ) an Abodesho and a Kyngesho .