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.

Fregsthorpe

Early-attested site in the Parish of Ketton

Historical Forms

  • Frygisthorp' 1300–20 DC
  • Fregisthorp' 1322 Wyg
  • Fregisthorpe 1550 Pat
  • Fregthorp 1610 Speed 1620 Map
  • Fregsthorpe Close 1638 DC

Etymology

'Friðegist's outlying farmstead', v. þorp . According to DB, a man called Fredgis held land in neighbouring Empingham in the reign of Edward the Confessor. The pers.n. is OScand  Friðgestr which appears in late OE  sources as Friðegist , or, as in the Liber Vitae of Thorney Abbey, as Freðegyst , Freþegist , v. Feilitzen 254–5, SPNLY 86. The settlement lay at approximately SK 991 049, v. MER 24.