(No. 11.) Domesday-Book. Ir may not be unacceptable to the reader to lay before him the following interesting particulars relative to this very valuable work. The drift, or design of the book, is to serve as a register, by which sentence may be given in the tenures of estates; and from which that noted question, whether lands be ancient demesne, or not, is still decided. Its contents are summed up in the following verses: "Quid deberetur fisco, quæ, quanta tributa, Domesday-book, according to Sir H. Spelman, if not the most ancient, is yet the most venerable monument of Great Britain, and contains an account of all the lands of England, except the four northern counties, Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Durham, and part of Lancashire; and describes the quantity and particular nature of them, whether meadow, pasture, arable, wood, or waste land. It mentions the rent and taxation, and records the several possessors of land, their number and distinct degrees. King Alfred, about the year 900, composed a book of the like nature, of which this was, in some measure, a copy. The exact time of William I. undertaking the survey is differently stated; but it appears to have been begun in 1080, and completed in 1086. The reason given for doing it was, that every man should be satisfied with his own right, and not usurp with impunity what belonged to another. By this also, William would be acquainted with an exact knowledge of the property of the crown, by the forfeitures of the lands of the English nobility who fell at the battle of Hastings; and he was thus enabled to remunerate his Norman followers, by the grants of their immense confiscated estates. When it hath been necessary to distinguish whether lands were held in ancient demesne, or in what other manner, recourse hath always been had to Domesday-book, and to that only, to determine the doubt. If lands were set down in that book under the title of "Terra Regis," or if it was said there, "Rex habet," such land or such a town, it was determined to be the king's ancient demesne. If the land or town were therein set down under the name of a private lord or subject, then it was determined to have been, at the time of the survey, the land of such private person, and not ancient demesne. Indeed, its name is said to have been derived from its definitive authority, from which, as at the sentence pronounced at domesday, or the day of judgment, there could be no appeal. This record is comprised in two volumes, one a folio, the other a quarto; the first is written on three hundred and eighty-two double pages of vellum, in a small but plain character, each page having a double column. Some of the capital letters and principal passages are touched with red ink, and some have strokes of red ink run across them, as if scratched out, but the design was to mark such passages with more particular notice: this volume contains the description of thirty-one counties; towards the beginning of each county, there is a catalogue of the capital lords or great land-holders who possessed any thing in it, beginning with the king, and then naming the great lords according to their rank and dignity. The other volume is in quarto, written on four hundred and fifty double pages of vellum, but in a single column, and in a large but very fair character. It contains the counties of Essex, fo. 1, Norfolk, fo. 109, Suffolk, fo. 281 to the end; part of the county of Rutland is included in that of Northampton, and part of Lancashire in the counties of York and Chester. Until of late years, it has been kept under three different locks and keys;-one in the custody of the treasurer, and the others of the two chamberlains of the exchequer.-It is now deposited in the Chapter-house at Westminster, where it may be consulted, on paying to the proper officer a fee of six and eightpence for a search, and fourpence per line for a transcript. Many parts of the ancient record have been printed in different county histories, and many more are to be found in public and private libraries. A catalogue of them is given in an account of Domesday-book, written by Philip Carterett Webb, esq. and published in 1756 by the Antiquarian Society. Another has been since published by Richard Gough, esq. in his useful book, "Anecdotes of British Topography," ranged under the different counties. The whole was, in the year 1783, printed at the public expense, by order of his late majesty king George III. with types cut for that purpose, and a copy presented to each member of parliament. Extract from Preface to Grose's Antiquities. We are told by Ingulphus, that king Alfred made a like register with that of William the Conqueror. It was begun upon that prince's dividing his kingdom into counties, hundreds, tithings, &c. when an inquisition being taken of the several districts, it was digested into a register, called Domboc, q. d. the Judgment-book, and was deposited in the church of Winchester, whence it is also called the Winchester-book," and "Rotulus Winton." It was compiled for the use of the Court-baron, hundred, and county-court, the court-leet, and sheriff's tourn; tribunals, which he established for the trial of all causes civil or criminal, in the very districts wherein the complaints arose; all of them subject, however, to be inspected, controlled, and kept within the bounds of the universal, or common law, by the king's own courts, which were then itinerant, being kept in the king's palace, and removing with his household in those royal progresses which he continually made from one end to the other. This book is said to have been extant so late as the reign of king Edward IV. but is now unfortunately lost. It probably contained the principal maxims of common law, the penalties for misdemeanors, and the forms of judicial proceedings. And upon the model of this Dom-boc it is, that the Domesday of the Conqueror was formed. That of king Alfred referred to the time of king Ethelred, and that of the Conqueror to the time of Edward the Confessor: the entries being thus made, "C. tenet rex Guilelmus in dominico, et valet ibi ducatæ, &c. T. R. E. valebat ;" q. d. it is worth so much tempore regis Eduardi, in the time of king Edward. King William conferred on his followers the estates of the nobility and gentry of this kingdom in military tenure, and extended his bounty in so large a manner, that Ingulphus, who lived in court with him, said that the king disposed of the earldoms and baronies, the bishopricks and dignities of the whole land to his Normans, and scarcely suffered any Énglishman to ascend the state of honour, or the government of any lordship. "When he had thus liberally gratified these great men for their eminent service in that signal battle at Hastings, he obliged them in an oath of fealty by this law made in the common-council of the kingdom : "We do ordain, that all our freemen shall swear that within and without our whole kingdom of England (which in old time was called the kingdom of Britain) they will be faithful to king William their lord, and will serve him every where, and defend his laws and honours against his enemies and strangers.' (Leges, Guliel. I. cap. 52. Lamb. Sax. Laws, fol. 170.) "These freemen were such as held in military service, and were not knighted; for those that were knighted were generally called Milites, and the other Liberi Homines, though sometimes they were taken promiscuously one for another; and to endear the hearts of those military men, he sweetened them with another law, which was made in the commoncouncil of the kingdom: "We also will, and firmly command and grant, that all freemen of the whole monarchy of our kingdom, may have and hold their lands and possessions well and in peace, free from all unjust exactions and tallages; so that nothing shall be exacted or taken from them, unless their free service, which they ought of right to do, and are bound to perform to us, as it was ordained for them, and given and granted to them by us as a perpetual right of inheritance, by the common-council of our said whole kingdom." (Ibid. I. cap. 55. Lamb. ibid.) "These were the English lands which king William had given in fee to his soldiers, to hold them under such services, as he had appointed by right of succession or inheritance; which right was not very common in those days among military tenants; for generally they did hold their lands at the will of the lord; and if they failed in the performance of their duty and service to the lord, they forfeited their estates, which is evident by another law made in the common-council: "We ordain and firmly command, that all earls, barons, knights, esquires, and all the freemen of our whole kingdom, shall always be fitted with horse and arms, as it becomes and behoves them to be; and shall be always ready and provided to perform their whole service to us when it shall be always needful, according to what they ought to do to us of right for their fees and tenements, and as we ordained they should do by the common-council of our said whole kingdom, and granted to them in fee by hereditary right; and this command shall not be violated by any way upon full forfeiture [that is to say, of all their lands and goods.]" Leges, Guliel. I. cap. 58. Lamb. fol. 171. "By this law it is clear, that all the freemen in this kingdom were bound by their tenure, to perform their military services with horse and arms, according to the value of their fees; therefore they were called Tenants in Military Service; for these were the lawful men that named and chose juries, and served upon juries, as doth plainly appear by this law: "We do also ordain and firmly command, that all the freemen of our kingdom shall be sworn brothers stoutly to preserve and defend our monarchy and our kingdom, with all their strength and might to the uttermost of their power, and keep entirely the peace and dignity of our crown, and continually give right judgment, to do justice by all ways and means to their power, without fraud or delay." (Ibid. I. cap. 59. Lamb. ibid.) "All freemen were obliged by their tenure and this law, "First, To preserve and defend the monarchy (which was the government) and the kingdom, with all their strength and might to the uttermost of their power, and to keep entirely 49 the peace and dignity of the crown; which service consisted in the performance of two things: 1. To serve the King with horse and arms at home, or upon any expedition abroad, when it was needful. 2. To advise the King in his great council, when he should require that service of them; and in order to it the inferior tenants, who paid escuage, were bound to contribute to the charge in proportion to the value of their fees. "Secondly, To judge rightly, and to do justice by all ways and means to their power, without fraud or delay, not only in their own courts or jurisdictions, where they were lords; but also in the county and hundred court, where they were suitors, and in the courts where they were jurors and recognitors of assize; and the chief of them were sheriffs, hundredaries, and other judges and ministerial officers in their several counties." Chauncey's Hertfordshire. Words used in Domesday. (In burgo) means a large town or city, to which particular power and privileges had been granted by the great men or governors to whom they belonged. It is not possible at this day to know what particular privileges each of these places enjoyed, but it is probable they were not all alike; as some at this day send members to parliament and others do not. Gilds were erected for the better government of them, consisting of a master, like the Saxon alderman, and a fraternity of the principal inhabitants, who were to assist him on all proper occasions; these persons were composed both of the clergy and laity. These have chiefly been changed into corporations since the reign of Henry VIII. established by charters granted by the king, which particularly express, all the power derived to them is from the crown. All the inhabitants of these places, who were not obliged to assist the king in his wars, and attend on him in person, whether tradesmen or others, were called castellanis and burgenses, if entitled to the privileges and immunities of the place; and their houses, burgage houses or burgage tenements. (Ep's de Cestre.) From the first conversion of the Mercians to christianity they had a bishop, who, taking the name of his diocess, was called Bishop of Mercia. He had power to live at any place in his diocess, large or small, where he had an estate. (Rogerus Comes.) This was Roger de Monte Gomerico, or Montgomery, who was descended from Gunnora, Duchess of Normandy, great grandmother to the Conqueror, who created him Earl of Shrewsbury, for his great services in the battles of Hastings and York. This nobleman, with Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, and William Fitz Osborne, Earl of Hereford, all of whom were near relations to King William, were by him entrusted with the care and government of the western parts of the island, in order to secure them against the incursions and depredations of the Welsh, who frequently plundered these people, and were likely to be very troublesome, as were afterwards found to be the case by many of their descendants. (Robertus de Stadford.) This nobleman was nearly related to the Conqueror, came over to England with him, and for his faithfulness and good conduct at the battle of Hastings and other places, was rewarded with one hundred and thirty-one lordships, an immense estate, and a prodigious extent of power. (Lib denar) i. e. nine pounds in money; for Sir W. Spelman observes, that all the people, by the word denarii, in the plural number, mean money in general. Under the feudal law, first brought (Rex tenet) to hold or occupy lands or tenements. into this island by the Norman king, he that enjoyed or had a right to any lands or tenements, must hold them of the king immediately, or of the lord of the fee, to whom the king had granted them, under some rent, service, duty or acknowledgment. This, however, cannot possibly be the meaning of the word tenet in the Domesday book, when applied to the king, because he cannot be said to hold lands of himself. By it, then, we must understand, that these lands and tenements belonged to his cousin Edward, or to the crown, and ɛo came to him as lands of inheritance along with it; for though this king in a short time became the most absolute monarch that ever sat on the British throne, yet he sometimes made a show of acting according to the Saxon laws, and pretended to come to the crown by the will of his cousin Edward; but at others he acted tyrannically, and showed no favours to the Saxons. If a Norman had a mind of an estate in the neighbourhood where he resided, it was not a difficult matter for him to make a claim, and bring the affair to a trial, when the jurymen being all Normans, no verdict could ever be obtained by the defendant. That *One Lanfrane, an Italian or Lombard, came into England with the Conqueror, and was by him made archbishop of Canterbury. He was a proud man, a great lover of power, pomp and grandeur; and in a synod which he summoned to meet at London, in 1978, he procured an order that all the bishops should reside in one of the largest towns or cities in their respective diocesses. One Peter, a Norman, having been made bishop of Mercia by the Conqueror, removed from Lichfield to Leicester, in conformity to this decree: aud from this time was called bishop of Chester; and notwithstanding Lichfield had been thought sufficiently large for Adulph the archbishop, it was now deemed too small for a Norman bishop: who from this time was to exercise a temporal as well as a spiritual power, and by his dress and equipage was to be distinguished from the rest of the priesthood. APPENDIX. D this must be the meaning of the word tenet, is farther evident from the grant which this king made to his nephew, Hugh de Abrinces, of the Earldom of Chester, which he was to hold as freely by the sword as the king himself held England by the crown. Sir P. Leycester says, some imagine this grant was nothing more than making him and his descendants sword-bearers at the coronation of our kings; because Hugh, Earl of Chester, at the marriage of Henry III. 1236, claimed this office as belonging to his ancestors, which claim was allowed. Sir Peter, however, is of an opinion, that something more magnificent must be couched in these words; for, as regality is inherent in the crown, a right of dignity was by this grant conveyed to the Earls of Chester by the sword, whose power in their jurisdiction was little inferior to that of the king in other places. The lands that then belonged to king Edward, or to the crown of England, are now called ancient demesne; and the others that were forfeited by the Saxons, who appeared in arms against William, and were not distributed by him to his principal officers, are called demesne lands to this day; and both together, crown lands. Since the time of the survey, our kings have given freely, or have by necessity been forced to part with all these crown lands, except some forests. After the restoration of Charles II. the civil list was set on foot, and established in lieu of them, for the maintenance of the king and royal family; so that, as our ancient kings had an estate in land, our reigning monarch might have one equivalent in money. Cum Præposito.) A reeve, bailiff or steward; his business was to take care of the king's tenants, to collect their rents, and to transmit it to court; and to manage the lands reserved for his own use. (Unus liber homo.) One freeman. This class of men were not free, in the same sense of the word, as we are in these happy times; when every man may sit down under his own vine and his own fig-tree; can remove from one place to another, as he pleases, without the leave of his lord; and can eat, drink and be clothed, according to his inclination and resources. Freedoms, in the days of the Norman Conqueror, were no more than an exemption from bodily labour and servile offices, which all the inferior were obliged to do for the lord of the manor; for the miles or soldier was called free, although he was bound to obey the orders of his officers. (Cum sex carucis.) The word charrue, in France and Normandy, in Latin caruca, signified a plough, which some say was peculiar to that country; but others that it came from the celtic or old British word carr, still in use here and in Ireland, for a carriage with two wheels; from whence the words charl, churl, carl or karl, for a clown, ploughman, or countryman are derived. Terra est sex carucate.) Carucata is a carue or plough land, that is, as much as one man could manage and till with a team of oxen in a year. This could be no certain quantity for an industrious man would plough a great deal more in the compass of a year than an idle one; and a team of horses will do much more than a team of oxen, as they move quicker. Mr. Jacob, in his Law Dictionary, states, that in the time of Edward II. it contained about one hundred acres, and was the same as a hide or soca, which Littleton says, were synonymous; but by the statutes 7 and 8 William III. a plough land was not estimated by measure, but by value, and fixed at £50. a year. Though the quantity of land in a carucate was thus uncertain, the whole kingdom was at that early period measured by it; and in after times so taxed, and then called caruagium, or carucagium in Latin. (Hida.) Sometimes hida and carucata were synonymous terms, but they are not so in this book for the word hida is always placed before carucata, so that we may suppose it contained a greater quantity of land. There are so many different accounts of the quantity of acres in a hide, that it would be difficult to say what was the real measure of it. Some authors say it contained 94, others 96, others fix it at 100 acres, and some make it seven or eight times that number. When the nation was taxed by hides, the tax was called hidage, in Latin hidagium. About the time of the survey, in 1084, the Conqueror laid six shillings on every hide of land; William Rufus four; and Henry I. three shillings. Derbyshire contains about 972 square miles, each of which consists of 640 acres; if, then, we allow each hide to be composed of 100 acres, or six hides to be contained in one mile, there must have been 5832 such hides, at least, in the whole county; or suppose 640 acres made such a hide, there must have been 972 in this county. (Terra regis.) The property or estate of the king. Lord Coke observes, that terra signifies all manner of land, meadows, pastures, &c.; it also includes houses and all other buildings erected upon it; and such an estate the Conqueror reserved to himself, in this and every other county of England, making in the whole 1422 manors or lordships, besides farms, lands and rent, in white money-according to Dr. Brady. (Unus servus.) A bailiff or steward to direct the tenants, farmers and labourers, and is always named before the villani and bordarii. (Villani.) Farmers, such as had goods and stock of their own, and paid rent to their lords: part in money, at this time very scarce and dear, and part in labour: being obliged to till and plough the land, sow and carry the corn and hay, &c. for the use of the lord and his family. They took their name from Villa, a hamlet, small town or village, where they generally dwelt; and in process of time, lord Coke says, they became copyholders. But the tenure by which they held their lands was called villenage or villenagium. |