It was refounded in 1003 as a Benedictine abbey by the thegn Wulfric Spott. About fifty memorial runestones describe the deceased as being a thegn. In 1086, Bramhope was the manor of an Anglo-Saxon thegn, Uchill. Godwin's father was probably Wulfnoth Cild, who was a thegn of Sussex. Siward Barn () was an 11th-century English thegn and landowner-warrior. One 11th century lay goldsmith was even a "thegn". This includes the will of a Saxon thegn named Wulfgar, whose name means "wolf-spear". "Geburs", peasants who worked land belonging to a "thegn", formed a lower class still. It was probably founded by an Anglo-Saxon thegn named Georna, hence Georna's Ham (or settlement). While some inherited the rank of thegn, others acquired it through property ownership, or wealth. The term thegn describes a class of retainer. Godwin was the son of Wulfnoth, probably a "thegn" and a native of Sussex. The Saxon Thegn Edwin held the lordship of the area prior to the Norman conquest. The Saxon border thegn, Edric the Wild, held the areas of Sireton, Comitome and Elsich.