Domesday Book, or DOOMSDAY BOOK, one of the oldest and most valuable records of England, contains the results of a statistical survey of that country made by William the Conqueror in 1085-86. The Anglo-saxon name, Dómes Dæg, 'day of judgment,' has obvious reference to the supreme authority of the book in doom or judgment on the matters contained in it. It was also anciently known as the Liber de Wintonia, or Book of Winchester; the Rotulus Wintonice, or Roll of Winchester; the Liber Regis, or King's Book; the Scriptura Thesauri Regis, or Record of the King's Treasury (where it was long kept, together with the king's seal, under three locks and keys); also the Liber Censualis Anglie, or Rate-book of England; and the Liber Judiciarius, or Book of Judgment.
The way in which the survey was made will be best described in the words of the contemporary writer in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. At mid-winter in 1085, when the king was at Gloucester, 'he had a great consultation, and spoke very deeply with his witan [i.e. great council or parliament] concerning the land, how it was held, and what were its tenantry. He then sent his men all over England, into every shire, and caused them to ascertain how many hundred hides of land it contained, and what lands the king had in it, what cattle there were in the several counties, and how much revenue he ought to get yearly from each. He also caused them write down how much land belonged to his archbishops, bishops, abbots, and earls, what property every inhabitant of all England possessed in land or in cattle, and how much money this was worth. So strictly did he cause the survey to be made, that there was not a single hide, nor a yardland of ground, nor—it is shameful to say what he thought no shame to do—was there an ox, or a cow, or a pig passed by, that was not set down in the accounts; all these writings were brought to him.'
The survey was made by commissioners called the king's justices, who had the help of the chief men of every shire. By a sworn assize or jury of the sheriffs, lords of manors, presbyters of churches, reeves (i.e. grieves or overseers) of hundreds, bailiffs, and six villeins (i.e. servile tenants) of every village, they made inquest as to the name of the place; who held it in the time of King Edward (1041-66); who was its present possessor; how many hides there were in the manor; how many plough-gates in demesne (i.e. reserved in the lord's own hand); how many honagers or vassals; how many villeins; how many cottars; how many serfs; what freemen; how many tenants in socage (i.e. tenants who rendered services of husbandry); how much wood; how much meadow and pasture; what mills and fish-ponds; how much had been added or taken away; what was the gross value in Edward's time; what the present value; and how much each free-man or socman has or had. They were also to state the value of the land (1) as held in Edward's days; (2) as it had been given by William; (3) as it stood at the time of this survey; and (4) if its value could now be raised.
The returns thus gathered in the several shires, and their hundreds and other subdivisions, were arranged and digested in the record which is now called the Great or Exchequer Domesday. The enumeration of the cattle and swine, which so moved the indignation of the Anglo-Saxon chronicler, though regularly made, was in some cases omitted from the record, because of its ever-fluctuating quantity. By this valuable census there was provided not only exact information of the land and its inhabitants, but also a trustworthy register of appeal for litigious proprietors, a reliable guide for military service, and a practical basis for regulating taxation. The taxes were levied according to the divisions of the country given in the Domesday Book, until 1522, when a new survey, popularly called the New Domesday Book, was made.
This great English record was published at the national cost in 1783, in two folio volumes, printed with types cast for the purpose, so as to represent the contractions of the original manuscript; it was ten years in passing through the press. In 1816 two supplementary volumes were published, one containing an excellent general introduction, by Sir Henry Ellis of the British Museum, with indices to the places and persons mentioned in the work; the other containing four other records of the same nature: (1) The Exon or Exeter Domesday, being a transcript of the Exchequer Domesday for the counties of Wilts, Dorset, Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall; (2) the Inquisitio Eliensis, a transcript of the survey of the lands of the monastery of Ely, in the counties of Cambridge, Hertford, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Huntingdon; (3) the Winton Domesday, containing two surveys of the city of Winchester, one made between 1107 and 1128, the other in 1148; and
Rex tenet in domino Stochæ. De firma regis. E. fuit. Tunc se defendit
p. xxv. h. Nichil geldaverunt. Terra est xxv. carcat. In domino sunt
ii. car. / xxvii. villi / x bordi cū xx. car. Ibi ecclesia. q. Wilhelms
tenet de rege cū dimidia hida melemosina. Ibi v. serui. / u. mo
lori de xxv. sol. / xxv. ac. p. Silua. xl. porci. & ipsa est
in parco regis.
T. R. E. / post. ualib. xxv. lib. Modo. xxv. lib. Tam qui tenet
reddit. xxv. lib. ad pensum. Vicecom. h. xxv. s. solid.
Specimen of Domesday Book.
The reading, freed from contractions, runs as follows:
Rex tenet in dominio Stochæ. De firma regis Edwardi fuit. Tunc se defendebat pro
xvij h. idis. Nichil geldaverunt. Terra est xv. carcat. In dominio sunt ij caru-
catæ & xxiv villani & x bordarij cum xx carcatis. Ibi ecclesia quam Wilhelmus
tenet de rege cum dimidia hida in elmosina. Ibi v serui & ii molini de xx sol. &
xvi acre prati. Silua xl porcorum & ipsa est in parco regis.
Tempore Regis Edwardi & post valebat xij lib. Modo xv lib. Tamen qui tenet reddit
xv lib. ad pensum. Vicecomes habet xxv solid. (4) the Beldon Book, a survey of the possessions of the see of Durham, made in 1183. This fourth record is especially valuable, as partially supplying a deficiency in the domesday survey, which did not extend to the counties of Durham, Northumberland, Westmoreland, and Cumberland, either, it would seem, because they had been lately laid waste by the Conqueror, or because his dominion was not fully established in them. A new and better edition of the Beldon Book was issued in 1852 by the Surtees Society, which, in 1857, printed
Bishop Hatfield's Survey, another record of the possessions of the see of Durham, compiled between 1345 and 1381. A new and enlarged edition of Sir Henry Ellis's General Introduction to Domesday Book was published in 1833, in 2 vols. 8vo. See also Stubb's Select Charters, and Freeman's Norman Conquest (vol. v. 1876). In 1861 a fac-simile copy of that part of Domesday Book which relates to Cornwall, was published by the Ordnance Survey, by photozinography; and since then, government has gone on publishing the rest of the Domesday Book, county by county, in the same way. In 1872 government ordered a general return of owners of lands, to be prepared by the Local Government Board. This modern 'Domesday Book' was published in 1874-76. Of minor books on Domesday there are not a few. A little work by Walter de Gray Birch, Domesday Book (1887), gives a succinct and popular account of this Record. In 1886 the Royal Historical Society celebrated the octo-centenary of the completion of Domesday, and, as a memorial, undertook a work entitled Domesday Studies, in two volumes. A Key to Domesday, so far as regards the counties of Dorset, Somerset, and Stafford, was issued by the Rev. R. W. Eytton in 1877-81 (4 vols.).