Toseland
Major Settlement in the Parish of Toseland
Historical Forms
- Toleslund 1086 DB c.1180 DandCLincDii90/3no.24 1255 For
- Touleslund 1231 FF 1286 QW
- Tholeslund 1241 FF
- T(h)ouleslound 1281 FF 1308 Ipm
- Toulislond, Touleslond 1284 Cl 1303,1316 FA 1317 Ipm 1319 Pat 1329 FF 1346 Orig 1361 Cl 1362 IpmR
- Tollesland 1321 Orig
- Toulesland 1324 Ipm
- Tow(e)slond 1364 FF 1428 FA 1443 IpmR
- Touslond 1378 Cl
- Touseland 1396 IpmR
- Towesland 1507 FF
- Towseland 1540 BM 1568 FF
Etymology
The second element in this name is the ON lundr, probably with the heathen religious associations attached to it, cf. Holland supra 220, 252. It is possible with Skeat to identify the first element with the Danish earl called Toglos in the Anglo- Saxon Chronicle, and the Toli of the Liber Eliensis , an earl of this district, who fell at the battle of Tempsford in 921.It should be added that while the identification of Toglos and Toli seems certain, it is impossible to bring these two names into elation with one another. Tóli is found, though rarely, in ONorw but is more common in ODan Toli and in OSw Tole .Toglos is unknown, though Björkman suggests (NP 142) that it might be a nickname from ON tauglauss , 'ropeless,' applied perhaps to a man who at a critical time had not got the right ropes on his ship. If that was his real name the writer of the Liber Eliensis being unfamiliar with this name may have turned it into a more familiar one or (just conceivably) the earl may have had an alliterative nickname and been called Toli Tauglauss .Whatever be the true relation of Toglos and Toli there is a good deal to be said for thinking that both names lie behind Toseland.Toglos would readily explain the persistent ME Toul -, otherwise very difficult to account for. Toli on the other hand is needed for early Tol - forms. The reduction of the suffix -los has its parallel in Brocklesby (L) which appears as Brochelesbi in DB but which (from other early forms) certainly contained ON Bróklauss , a nickname meaning 'breechless.' So also Scamblesby (L) from ON Skamlauss , 'shameless.' On the other hand, the gen. sg. of ON Tóli is Tóla , and we should have expected an s -less form as in Tolthorpe (R) if that name had lain behind Toseland.