Page images
PDF
EPUB

PART I

TERRITORIAL STUDIES

B. H

B

PART..!

TERRITORIAL STUDIES

THE

DOMESDAY BOOK

HE true key to the Domesday Survey, and to the system of land assessment it records, is found in the Inquisitio Comitatus Cantabrigiensis. Although the document so styled is one of cardinal importance, it has, from accident, been known to few, and has consequently never succeeded in obtaining the attention and scientific treatment it deserved. The merit of its identification belongs to Mr. Philip Carteret Webb, who published in 1756 a paper originally read before the Society of Antiquaries, entitled, A Short Account of Danegeld, with some further particulars relating to William the Conqueror's Survey. It is difficult to speak too highly of this production, remembering the date at which it was composed. Many years were yet to elapse before the printing of Domesday was even begun, and historical evidences were largely inaccessible as compared with the condition of things to-day. Yet the ability shown by Mr. Webb in this careful and conscientious piece of work is well seen in his interesting discovery, which he announced in these words :

In searching for the Liber Eliensis, I have had the good fortune to discover in the Cotton Library a MS. copy of the Inquisition of the jury, containing their survey for most of the hundreds in Cambridgeshire. This MS. is written on vellum in double columns and on

both sides of the page. It is bound up with the Liber Eliensis, and begins at p. 76a and ends at p. 113. It is written in a very fair but ancient character, not coeval with the Survey, but of about the time of Henry II. It was given by Mr. Arthur Agard to Sir Robert Cotton, and is marked Tiberius A. VI. 4. Your lordship and the Society will be of opinion that this is a discovery of importance, and what had escaped the observation of Sir H, Spelman, Mr. Selden, and other antiquarians. A part of this valuable morsel of antiquity is already transcribed, and in a few weeks I hope to be able to communicate the whole of it to the Society (p. 26).

by him

Mr. Webb's discovery was known to Kelham, and duly referred to by him in his Domesday Book Illustrated (1788). It was also known to Sir Francis Palgrave, strong in his acquaintance with manuscript authorities, who alluded (1832) to the fact that "fragments of the original inquisitions have been preserved," and described the MS. Tib. A. VI., of which "the first portion consists of the Inquisitio Eliensis, extending, as above mentioned, into five counties; it is followed by the inedited Inquisitio," etc." It is, however, undoubtedly ignored in Ellis's Introduction to Domesday Book (1833), and "even the indefatigable Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy," writes Mr. Birch," "has omitted all notice of this manuscript in his Descriptive Catalogue of Manuscripts relating to the History of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. ii. (1865)." This, however, is not strictly the case, for in his notice of the Domesday MSS. he observes in a footnote:

The Cottonian MS. [Tib. A. VI.] has also a second and unique portion of this survey, which was not printed in the edition published by the Record Commission in 1816. It commences "in Grantebriggesira, in Staplehouhund," and ends imperfectly "et vicecomiti regis v. auras."

These words prove that Sir Thomas had inspected the MS., which duly begins and ends with the words here given.

It is certain, however, that Mr. Freeman, most ardent of 2 Ibid.

1 English Commonwealth, II. ccccxliv.

3 Domesday Book, p. 42.

« PreviousContinue »