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INTRODUCTION.

Domesday Book, or the Great Survey of England, was made by order of William the Conqueror, A.D. 1086.

It is contained in two volumes, the first of which, called Great Domesday Book, is a folio of 760 pages; the second, called Little Domesday Book, containing the survey of the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex, is a large octavo of 900 pages of the size of this

copy.

These volumes contain the Census of the Kingdom, made up from returns from each county of England, excepting the four northern counties, viz:-Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmorland, and Durham.

The Book of Exeter and the Book of Ely are of the same date, and no doubt copied from the same returns as Domesday Book itself, but they contain more details than are given in Domesday.

The Book of Winchester was made A.D. 1148.

Boldon Book, containing returns for the county of Durham, was made A.D. 1183.

These five Books, with valuable Indexes and very interesting explanatory Introductions, have been published in four folio volumes in modern type, but with all the contractions in the original. The first volume, containing Great Domesday Book, and the second volume, containing Little Domesday Book, were published in 1783.

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The other four Books were published in 1816 in the third and fourth volumes, by order of the Royal Commissioners who were appointed for the purpose of carrying into execution the measures recommended by the House of Commons respecting the Public Records of the Kingdom, and under the immediate direction of Sir Henry Ellis, late Principal Librarian of the British Museum, to whom we are indebted for the valuable Introductions and Indexes. To these Introductions, and to the enlarged General Introduction published separately in two octavo volumes in 1833, by the same author, I must refer those who desire to have more detailed information respecting Domesday Book than it is my object in these few preliminary remarks to enter upon.

The following remarkable passage from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is taken from the Translation by Mr. Benjamin Thorpe, published under the direction of the Right Hon. the Master of the Rolls.—Vol. II. (Translation) pp. 185, 186.

“A.D. MLXXXV. In this year men declared, and for sooth said, that Cnut King of Denmark, son of King Svein, was bound hitherward, and would win this land with the aid of Robert Count of Flanders; because Cnut had Robert's daughter to wife. When William King of England, who was then residing in Normandy, because he owned both England and Normandy,―was apprized of this, he went into England with so large an army of horsemen and foot, from France and from Brittany, as never before had sought this land, so that men wondered how this land could feed all that army. But the king caused the army to be distributed through all this land among his vassals: and they fed the army, each according to the measure of his land. And men had great affliction this year; and the king caused the land about the sea to be laid waste, so that if his foes should land, they might not have whereon they might so readily seize. But when the king was informed in sooth that his foes were hindered, and could not further their expedition, he let some of the army go to their own land: and some he held in this land over the winter. Then at midwinter the king was at Gloucester with his 'witan' and there held his court five days; and afterwards the archbishop and clergy had a synod three days. There was Maurice chosen bishop of London, and William to Norfolk, and Robert to Cheshire. They were all the king's clerks. After this the king had a great council, and very deep speech with his 'witan' about this land, how it was peopled, or by what men; then sent his men over all England, into every shire, and caused to be ascertained how many hundred hides were in the shire, or what land the king himself had, and cattle within the land, or what dues he ought to have, in twelve months, from the shire. Also he caused to be written how much land his archbishops had, and his suffragan bishops, and his abbots, and his earls; and— though I may narrate somewhat prolixly-what or how much each man had who was a holder of land in England, in land, or in cattle, and how much money it might be worth. So very narrowly he caused it to be traced out, that there was not one single hide, nor one yard of land, nor even-it is shame to tell, though it seemed to him no shame to do—an

INTRODUCTION.

iii ox, nor a cow, nor a swine, was left, that was not set down in his writ. And all the writings were brought to him afterwards."

For the execution of the Survey, Commissioners called King's Justiciaries, or Legati Regis, were appointed to go into each county, these Commissioners, or to quote from Sir H. Ellis, p. 21:—

"The Inquisitors, it appears, upon the oaths of the Sheriffs, the Lords of each Manor, the Presbyters of every Church, the Reves of every Hundred, the Bailiffs and six Villans of every village, were to enquire into the name of the place, who held it in the time of King Edward, who was the present possessor, how many hides in the Manor, how many carrucates in demesne, how many homagers, how many villans, how many cotarii, how many servi, what free-men, how many tenants in socage, what quantity of wood, how much meadow and pasture, what mills and fish-ponds, how much added or taken away, what the gross value in King Edward's time, what the present value, and how much each free-man or soch-man had or has. All this was to be triply estimated: first, as the estate was held in the time of the Confessor; then, as it was bestowed by King William; and thirdly, as its value stood at the formation of the Survey. The jurors were moreover to state whether any advance could be made in the value."

As regards the measures of land in Domesday,

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"The truth" Sir H. Ellis says seems to be that a hide, a yardland, a knight's fee, &c., contained no certain number of acres, but varied in different places," but it has been described to be "as much as was sufficient to the cultivation of one plough, whence our term of plough-land.”

"The Carucata, which is also to be interpreted the plough-land, was as much arable as could be managed with one plough and the beasts belonging thereto in a year; having meadow, pasture, and houses for the house-holders and cattle belonging to it ;" and it appears that “the hide was the measure of land in the Confessor's reign, the carucate that to which it was reduced by the Conqueror's new standard.”

The Hide is generally supposed to be equal to 120 acres.

Money is generally estimated as at thirty times its present

value.

In the year 1855 I introduced Photography for the purpose of making accurate reductions of the Ordnance plans from the larger

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