Pecsaetan

The Pecsætan ( ang, Pēcsǣtan; singular , literally " Peak-dweller"), also called Peaklanders or Peakrills in modern English, were an Anglo-Saxon tribe who inhabited the central and northern parts of the Peak District area in England.

The area was in the southern part of the Brigantia, a Brythonic tribal domain. Early Anglo-Saxon settlements were by West Angles. This tribe advanced up the valleys of the rivers Derwent and Dove during their northern conquests in the 6th century. The area became known locally as the Pecsætan, Peak-set or land of the Peak peoples. Later their territory formed the northern division of Mercia, and in 848 the Mercian Witenagemot assembled at Repton.

In ''A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain,'' Daniel Defoe mentions a later group of people called The Peakrills writing, "The ''Peakrills'', as they are called, are a rude boorish kind of People; but bold, daring, and even desperate in their Search into the Bowels of the Earth: for which Reason they are often employed by our Engineers in the Wars to carry on the ''Sap'', when they lay Siege to strong fortified Places."

References

Further reading

*Bigsby, R. (1854) ''Historical and Topographical Description of Repton.'' London.
*Collis, J. (1983) ''Wigber Low Derbyshire: A Bronze Age and Anglian Burial site in the White Peak.'' Department of Archaeology and Prehistory, University of Sheffield.
*Davies, W. and Vierk, H. "The contexts of Tribal Hidage: social aggregates and settlement patterns", in ''Frühmittelalterliche Studien'', viii (1974)
*Dumville, D. "The Tribal Hidage: an introduction to its texts and their history", in ''The Origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms'' ed. S.Bassett, 1989.
*Fowler, M. J. (1954) "The Anglian Settlement of the Derbyshire and Staffordshire Peak District." ''DAJ'' 74, 134–151.
*Hart, C. R. (1981) ''The North Derbyshire Archaeological Survey.'' Leeds: A. Wigley & Sons
*Hodges, R. and Wildgoose, M. (1980) "Roman or native in the White Peak", in Branigan, K. (ed) ''Rome and the Brigantes'', 48–53. Sheffield, Sheffield University Press.
*Hodges, R. (1991a) "Notes on the Medieval Archaeology of the White Peak." In R. Hodges and K. Smith (eds) ''Recent Developments in the Archaeology of the Peak District'' :111–122 (Sheffield Archaeological Monographs 2) Sheffield.
*Hughes, R. G (1961) "Archaeological Sites in the Trent Valley, South Derbyshire" ''DAJ'' 81, 149–50.
*Jones, H. (1997) ''The Region of Derbyshire and North Staffordshire from AD350 to AD700: an analysis of Romano-British and Anglian barrow use in the White Peak.'' Ph.D. thesis, University of Nottingham.
*
*Roffe, D. (1986b) "The Origins of Derbyshire" ''DAJ'' 106, 102–112.
*Rollason et al.
*Routh, T. (1937) "A Corpus of the Pre-Conquest Carved Stones of Derbyshire" ''DAJ'' 58, 1–46.
*Sidebottom, P.C. (1994), ''Schools of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture in the North Midlands.'' Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Sheffield.
*Sidebottom P.C (1999) "Stone Crosses in the Peak and the Sons of Eadwulf." ''DAJ'' 119, 206–19.
* Stenton, F. (1905) "Introduction to the Derbyshire Domesday", in W. Page (ed) ''The Victoria History of the County of Derbyshire.'' London.
*Unwin, T. (1988) "Towards a model of Anglo-Scandinavian rural settlement in England", in Hooke, D. (ed) ''Anglo-Saxon Settlements'', 77–98.
* Yorke, B. (1990) ''Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England'', London: Seaby.

External links

East Midlands Archaeological Research Framework: Resource Assessment of Anglo-Saxon Derbyshire
An Archaeological Resource Assessment of Anglo-Saxon Derbyshire, by Dave Barrett, Derbyshire County Council
{{Heptarchy

Peoples of Anglo-Saxon Mercia
Peak District
Petty kingdoms of England