Domesday Book

Domesday Book, the name of the record (strictly speaking, of part only, see below) of the great survey of England for purposes of taxation undertaken by William the Conqueror with the consent of the Witan in 1084. Commissioners, who were men of high rank, were sent out to inquire as to every estate, who had held it in the reign of Edward the Confessor; who held it at the time of the inquiry; its value at both dates, whether that value could be raised, and the title by which it was held. Careful inquiry was to be made as to the possibility of imposing increased taxation. Similar surveys had been made before in connection with the Danegeld, with which this was also ostensibly Connected, but the minuteness of the investigation made the Domesday survey very unpopular. The evidence was taken- in the Hundred Court. The assessment is either by the hide or the carucate (q.v.), and the record contains little direct reference to the Conquest, though indirectly there is evidence of much confiscation. The inquiry was finished in the summer of 1086. The evidence was taken on oath in the Hundred Courts. The name (Day of Judgment) said in mediaeval times to have been given from the strictness of the inquiry more probably refers to the decisions of the Commissioners on closing their Courts. The survey covers all England, except the four northern counties and part of Lancashire. The results are preserved in (1) The Exchequer Domesday or Liber de Wintonia, properly called Domesday Book, of which vol. i. gives concisely the survey of thirty counties, and vol. ii. longer reports of Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk. (2) The

Exon Domesday, in the care of the chapter of Exeter cathedral, which contains detailed accounts of Wilts, Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall. (3) Tie Inquisitio Eliensis, treating of the possessions of the great Abbey of Ely. Mr. Freeman thought that vol. i. of the Liber de Wintonia was an abridgement of the record given in more detail in the other volumes mentioned; but this is disputed as regards the Exon Domesday at any rate. Domesday Book was reprinted by the Record Commission 1783-1810, and in facsimile in 1864-65.