BACKGROUND & NOTES TO DOMESDAY BOOK 

From the mid 7th century Mercia, between Northumbria and the Thames, with Surrey, was suzerain over the rest of the southern English, of Kent, the East Angles, the East, South and West Saxons. Only Wessex, itself divided into sub-kingdoms or Shires, sustained resistance, and in 829 Egbert of Wessex wrested suzerainty from the Mercians. But, soon after, the Scandinavian Northmen overran Britain and Ireland and also northern France, where they settled and named Normandy. In England they settled the Dane Law, east of Watling Street (the A5) and the river Lea, basing their armies on fortified Boroughs, each maintained by a large area. They were subdued by Egbert's grandson Alfred (871.899) and his son Edward (899-925), who built similar Boroughs; Edward's son and grandson, Athelstan and Edgar, annexed Northumbria, heavily settled by Norwegians, and revived the ravaged monasteries. Edgar's son Ethelred faced renewed invasion by the King of Denmark. To buy or fight off the Danes, he levied a tax (geld) on each 'hide', originally 'land for one family', but reckoned in DB at 120 acres, and maintained other imposts, chiefly for the church, on each plough; 5 hides was taken as a usual unit of liability for military service. The assessments of hides and plough capacity were revised at different times in different areas, and in the Dane Law the 'carucate' commonly replaced the hide. About 1008, Mercia was organised in Shires based on Boroughs. But the Danes prevailed, and when Ethelred and his son Edmund Ironside both died in 1016 without adult heirs, the Danish King, Canute, became King of England. Earl (eorl; Scandinavian jarl) became the normal title of regional rulers, formerly termed 'Aldermen'.

Canute appointed three great Earls, Siward the Dane (Macbeth's enemy) in Northumbria; Leofric, a Mercian noble, husband of Lady Godiva (died after 1066); and, south of the Thames, Godwin, probably of Sussex, who married his sister-in-law, Gytha. When Canute's sons died childless, Ethelred's son Edward (the Confessor, 1042 1066) returned from exile in Normandy, with Norman friends, one of whom, Ralph, son of his sister Goda, became Earl of Hereford. Edward could not control the Earls, and in the end concentrated on renewing monasteries, especially Westminster. Godwin, backed by popular dislike of the Norman's, dominated the government, and married his daughter Edith to the King- He was succeeded by his son Harold in 1053, and Leofric's son Algar succeeded Harold as Earl of East Anglia.Siward died in 1055, and Harold's brother Tosti became Earl of Northumbria. Leofric died in 1057, followed in Mercia by Algar, who died in 1062, succeeded by his son Edwin. Harold's brothers Gyrth and

Leofwin became Earls of East Anglia, with Oxford, and of Kent and the Home Counties. But in 1065 the Northumbria's expelled Tosti and chose Edwin's brother Morcar. Siward's son Waltheof became Earl of Huntingdon.

King Edward died on 5 January 1066- His nearest relative was a child, Prince Edgar, grand. son of Edmund lronside, but the danger was too great for a child King. The King of Norway, with Tosti, and Duke William of Normandy both threatened invasion- Harold was crowned. He watched the south, but the Norwegian invasion came first, and destroyed the armies of Edwin and Morcar. Harold marched north and annihilated the Norwegian army, but in the meantime William landed. Harold hastened south, but was overwhelmed by William's mailed cavalry and trained archers, at Battle, near Hastings, on 14 October. London briefly resisted in Edgar's name, but with no army left, soon submitted to William, who was crowned at Westminster on Christmas Day.

At first, the surviving English kept their lands, but a series of rebellions soon destroyed almost all remaining magnates, whose lands passed to Norman successors, and tens of thousands of smaller men, who had formerly 'held freely' were placed under them. Bishops and Abbots were one by one replaced by Norman's. England was garrisoned by castles, large, small and tiny. The great Earldoms were discontinued, and by 1086 only two remained, in the border lands of Cheshire and Shropshire; more were created, in and after 1087/8. Effective local power passed to the King's Sheriffs, most of them changed every few years.

In 1084 an exceptionally heavygeld was collected. The King raised a large army of foreign mercenaries, and, to meet a threatened Danish invasion in 1085, billeted them on English landholders, 'each according to his land'. Tax and billeting revealed evidence of out-of-date valuations and disputed claims to land and to exemptions. That experience was a main immediate cause of the Doomsday Survey, to discover how much cultivated land there was, what it was worth, and who held it, rightfully or wrongfully.

 

DOMESDAY BOOK was compiled into volumes. Each volume being a complete survey of the shire (below). The Doomsday book is termed Liber Wintonia (The book of Winchester).

Kent. Sussex. Surrey. Hampshire. Berkshire. Wiltshire. Dorset. Somerset. Devon. Cornwall. Middlesex. Hertfordshire. Buckinghamshire. Oxfordshire.  Gloucestershire. Worcestershire. Herefordshire. Cambridgeshire. Huntingdonshire. Bedfordshire. Northamptonshire. Leicestershire. Warwickshire. Staffordshire. Shropshire. Cheshire. Derbyshire.  Nottinghamshire. Rutland. Yorkshire. Lincolnshire. Yorkshire Claims. Lincolnshire. Yorkshire summary. Essex. Norfolk. Suffolk. 

 

The Domesday Survey In 1066 Duke William of Normandy conquered England. He was crowned King, and most of the lands of the English nobility were soon granted to his followers. Domesday Book was compiled 20 years later. The Saxon Chronicle records that in 1085 at Gloucester at midwinter the King had deep speech with his counsellors and sent men all over England to each shire to find out what or how much each landholder held in land and livestock, and what it was worth The returns were brought to him.1 William was thorough. One of his Counsellors reports that he also sent a second set of Commissioners 'to shires they did not know, where they were themselves unknown, to check their predecessors' survey, and report culprits to the King.'2 

The information was collected at Winchester, corrected, abridged, chiefly by omission of livestock and the 1066 population, and faircopied by one writer into a single volume. The whole undertaking was completed at speed, in less than 12 months:

  • They were to ask The name of the place Who held it, before 1066, and now?

  • How many hides?3

  • How many ploughs, both those in lordship and the men's?

  • How many villagers, cottagers and slaves?

  • How many free men and Freemen?4

  • How much woodland, meadow and pasture?

  • How many mills and fishponds?

  • How much has been added or taken away? What the total value was and is?

  • or has? All threefold, before 1066.

  • How much each free man or Freeman had when King William gave it, and now, and if more can be had than at present?

The Ely volume also describes the procedure. The Commissioners took evidence on oath 'from the  Sheriff; from all the barons and their Frenchmen; and from the whole Hundred, the priests, the reeves and six villagers from each village'. It also names four Frenchmen and four Englishmen from each Hundred, who were sworn to verify the detail.

The King wanted to know what he had, and who held it. The Commissioners therefore listed lands in dispute, for Domesday Book was not only a tax-assessment. To the King's grandson, Bishop Henry of Winchester, its purpose was that every 'man should know his right and because it was the final authoritative register of rightful possession the natives called it Domesday Book, by analogy from the Day of Judgement", that was why it was carefully arranged by Counties, and by landholders within Counties, 'numbered consecutively for easy reference'.5

Domesday Book describes Old English society under new management, in minute statistical detail. Foreign lords had taken over, but little else had yet changed. The chief landholders and those who held from them are named, and the rest of the population was counted. Most of them lived in villages, whose houses might be clustered together, or dispersed among their fields. Villages were grouped in administrative districts called Hundreds, which formed regions within Shires, or Counties, which survive today with miner boundary changes; the recent deformation of some ancient county identities is here disregarded, as are various short-lived modern changes. The local assemblies, though Overshadowed by lords great and small, gave men a voice, which the Commissioners heeded. Very many holdings were described by the Norman term manerium (manor), greatly varied in size and structure, from tiny farmsteads to vast holdings; and many lords exercised their own jurisdiction and other rights, termed soca, whose meaning still eludes exact definition. The Survey was unmatched in Europe for many centuries, the product of a sophisticated and experienced English administration, fully exploited by the Conqueror's commanding energy.

The translation and lay-out. It aims at what the compiler would have written if his language had been modern English; though no translation can be exact, for even a simple word like 'free' nowadays means freedom from different restrictions.
Bishop Henry emphasized that his grandfather preferred 'ordinary words'-, the nearest modern English is therefore chosen whenever possible. Words that are now obsolete, or have changed their meaning, are avoided, but measurements have to be transliterated, since their extent is often unknown or arguable, and varied regionally. The terse inventory form of the original has been retained, as have the ambiguities of the Latin.

Modern English commands two main devices unknown to 11th century Latin, standardised punctuation and paragraphs; in the Latin, ibi ('there are') often does duty for a modern full stop, et ('and') for a comma or semi-colon. The entries normally answer the Commissioners' questions, arranged in five main groups, (i) the place and its holder, its hides, ploughs and lordship; (ii) people; (iii) resources; (iv) value; and (v) additional notes. The groups are usually given as separate paragraphs.

1.Before he left England for the last time, late in 1086. 2.Robert Losinga, Bishop of Hereford 1079 - 1095. 3.A land unit, reckoned as l20 acres. 4.Quot Sochemani. 5.dialogus de Scaccario.Before he left England for the last time, late in 1086. 2.Robert Losinga, Bishop of Hereford 1079 - 1095. 3.A land unit, reckoned as l20 acres. 4.Quot Sochemani. 5.dialogus de Scaccario

Hides; Measurement of land reckoned to be 120 acres.

Carucate; Equivalent in the Danish areas of the hide.

 

Wapentake; Equivalent of the Hundred in Danish areas. The Derbyshire Wapentakes were eventually know as Hundreds. There are 5 Wapentakes: Scarsdale, Morleyston, Wirksworth, Repton & Appletree all Mentioned in the Doomsday Book; The late Hundred of the High Peak is not mentioned in the Domesday book and is of later being.

Latin meanings

 Many words meaning measurements have to be transliterated. But translation may not dodge other problems by the use of obsolete or made-up words which do not exist in modern English. The translations here used are given in italics. They cannot be exact; they aim at the nearest modem equivalent.

B. Marginal abbreviation for berewic; an outlying place, attached to a manor. outlier

BURDARIUS. Cultivator of inferior status, usually with a little land. smallholder

BUVATA. One eighth of a carucate. b.

CARUCA. A plough, with the oxen who pulled it, usually reckoned as 8. plough

CARUCATA. The unit of land measurement in Danish areas. c.

CENSURES.  tributaries

DUMINIUM. The mastery or dominion of a lord (dominus); including ploughs, land, men, villages, etc., eserved for the lord's use; often concentrated in a home farm or demesne, a 'Manor Farm' or Lordship Farm'. lordship

FRANCUS HOMO. Equivalent of liber homo (free man). freeman

GELDUM. The principal royal tax, originally levied during the Danish wars, normally at an equal number of pence on each hide of land. tax

HIDA. The English unit of land measurement or assessment, often reckoned at 120 acres; see Sussex, appendix. hide

HUNDRED. In English Shires a district within a shire, whose assembly of notables and village representatives usually met about once a month. In and about Nottinghamshire,. Hundred

LEUGA. A measure of length, usually about a mile and a half. League

M. Marginal abbreviation for manerium, manor. M.

SACA. German Sache, English sake, Latin causa, affair. lawsuit; the fullest authority normally exercised by a lord. Full jurisdiction

SUCA. 'Soke', from socn, to seek, comparable with Latin quaestio. Jurisdiction with the right to receive fines and a multiplicity of other dues. District in which such soca is exercised; a place in a soca. jurisdiction

SOCHEMANNUS. 'Soke man', exercising or subject to jurisdiction; free from many villagers' burdens; before 1066 often with more land and higher status than villagers (see e.g. Bedfordshire, Middlesex Appendices); bracketed in the Commissioners' brief with the liber homo (free man). freeman

TAINUS, TEGNUS. Person holding land from the King by special grant; formerly used of the King's ministers and military companions. thane

T.R.E. tempore regis Edwardi, in King Edward's time. before 1066

VILLA. Translating Old English tun. town. The later distinction between a small village and a large town was not yet in use in 1086. village or town

VILLANUS. Member of a villa, usually with more land than a bordarius. villager

VlRGATA. A quarter of a hide, reckoned at 30 acres. virgate

WAPENTAC. Equivalent of the English Hundred in Danish areas. wapentake

REF: YEATMAN

 

 

 

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