MEARCREDSBURNA IS THE RIVER ROTHER

The western River Rother beside Cowdray House at Midhurst, West Sussex, England

(Photo Courtesy Wikipedia)

The unknown Mearcredesburna or 'Mearcred's Burn' of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle I make out to be the Adur's tributary, the Rother, once called the Limen, a British river-name.  Limen was probably connected to Latin limen, 'a limit, boundary', from limes, and so the supposed personal name Mearcred (containing Old English mearc, 'boundary, a limit') was substituted.  In truth, it likely can be traced back to the Roman period Portus Lemanis at Lympne. 

According top Dr. Richard Coates, however, there was another River Rother:

"There are 2 river Rothers in Sussex – one at Midhurst and one in the far east of the county."  Here is a map of the second one:

From Thomas Lewin's "Invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar", 1862. This map shows the course of the River Rother before a great storm altered its course.

In addition, there is another 'boundary river" on the Isle of Wight.  The following information was provided to me by Dr. Coates:

The Medina

Medine c. 1200 HMC, 1299 RS, t. Ed 4 Ct

Medme 1279 Ass, (cursum aque que vocat’) medeme before 1295 CarD, Medeme c.1250 QCh, 13th AD, Madox, AD, t. Ed. 1 RS, Medome 1299 RS

Medone 1299 Add

Mede c.1240x1250 GBCart, c.1250 QCh, 13th AOMB, ?13th (18th) Harl, aqua de Meda 1300 CarD

Medene R. 1775 M, River Medina 1781 M, R. Medena 1785 M

Ekwall (1928: 283-284 and DEPN) suggested that Medina and the name of the river Meden (Nottinghamshire) derive from the OE adjective medume, meodeme ‘middle’. That is appropriate for this river, which divides the island into two approximately equal halves. Forms like Medine and Medeine, which also occur in the names of the hundreds deriving from the river-name, probably result from mistaken resolution of minim-letter sequences in medieval handwriting, with <m> resolved as <in>. Subsequently Medine was latinized as Medina; there is no such Latin word, but it no doubt conveniently suggested medium ‘centre’ and related words. The name is now stressed on the second syllable, on the model of the many names, especially female given names, ending with -ina.

Ekwall (1928: 284) explains the short form Mede as being due to the fact that the river name appeared in long hundred-names such as *Estemedeme hundred. He felt that the loss of the <m> could be due to the second of three nasal consonants <…m…m…n…> in the long name being affected by dissimilation or haplology. In both the river-name and  the hundred-names the shorter form is not found after the 14th century, after which, in the hundred-names, it is usually supplanted by forms in <-in->. That may suggest that the reason for the loss of <-m-> is really to be traced in the sociolinguistics of the High Middle Ages. Only one instance of the shorter form is found after the Black Death (1348-9) which precipitated the decline of French in legal-administrative usage. In medieval French, final resonant consonants in words adapted from Latin, where they represented historic syllables two after the stressed syllable, were strongly subject to elision (angele > ange, imagene > image, virgene > vi(e)rge), and this may be a reason for the early reduction of initially-stressed Medeme to Mede by scribes conversant with Law French. A further contributory factor may be the resemblance of the first syllable to the familiar ME place-name element mēde ‘meadow’.[1] From the later 14th century, local usage mediated by writers of English prevailed, though using the forms in <-in-> which had become normal.

The estuary of the Medina below Newport, i.e. presumably below the tidal limit, was formerly known as:

Maresfluit c.1222 QCh

Maresfleth c.1250 QCh

Mareflet c.1250 QCh, 13th AD, AD

Marleflet [for Marseflet?] 14th WCM

Mersflete t. Hy 7 RS

Marle- is presumably an error for Marseflet.

‘Boundary creek’, (ge)mǣre, with variable marking of the genitive case in -s, + flēot. The name may be post-Conquest, in which case the administrative significance of the name must be that it marked the northern stretch of the boundary between East Medine and West Medine hundreds.

The early mentions are not straightforward. The second deals with a grant by William de Caulburn of “his share in the water [?stream] of Maresfleth with its bed, and also his share in the water of the Medeme [Medina]”, which leaves the relation between the two unclear; presumably Medeme refers to the river above the tidal limit. TNA AD (B.2542)~E326/2542, a grant by Juliana le Waleys, donates to the Cistercian monks of Quarr Abbey “her part of the water of Mareflet and Medeme as far as Scepeswassce [represented by Sheepwash Rew and Upper & Lower Sheepwash Copse in Whippingham] with right of way to their mill through her land, from the road from Newport (Novo Burgo) to Wippingham through Bromhillelake, and sufficient land for a mill-pond”. Bromehillelake has not been identified; it can hardly belong with Broomhill in Godshill. An undated (c.1250) document E 326/8634 appears to refer to the same mill, as yet unbuilt; it grants a site “for the building of a mill or for fishing”. The site has not been definitely identified, but must be the prominent East Medina tidemill, at the foot of a creek called Mill Pond on late 19thC OS maps, in 2024 hosting a marina. No Broomhill has been found there, but note Heathfield Fm near the head of the creek, which may suggest land suitable for broom.

It seems, however, that the 'Limen" Rother remains the most likely candidate for Mearcredsburna, as Maresfluit is never found as Mearcreds-.

In my opinion, the estuary portion of the Medina as a boundary stream makes little sense.  This was probably originally a "Sea-fleot".

From Bosworth and Toller:

mere(n.)

mære, es; m. f(?).

the sea ⬩ a mere ⬩ lake ⬩ an artificial pool ⬩ cistern

Entry preview: In eálonde ðæs myclan meres ( stagni ), Bd. 4, 29; S. 607, 10. Seó menigeo ðe stód begeondan ðam mere, Jn. Skt. 6, 22. On culfran mere; of ðæm mere ... On weorces mere; of ðære mere, Cod. Dip. Kmbl. iii. 76, 37-77, 3.

Linked entries: mǽr-bróc mære mire

However, Coates is against this, saying "The completely consistent medieval spellings with <a> are against that."  The medieval spellings are quite late, though, and I maintain that this could have been (and probably was!) "Sea-estuary" in an earlier period. 

There was, apparently, a Meres-fleot in Sandwich, Kent:

https://books.google.com/books?id=uP0LAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA465&lpg=PA465&dq=%22meres-fleot%22&source=bl&ots=yScKx1XSBA&sig=ACfU3U1vFGGApUGiDqD-Ulnpz9yGUenFDQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjFzoiJ4I-FAxXyAjQIHdXFB30Q6AF6BAgIEAM#v=onepage&q=%22meres-fleot%22&f=false

That one, at least, must be Sea-fleot.