DOMESDAY BOOK, or simply DOMESDAY, the record of the great survey of England executed for William the Conqueror. We learn from the English Chronicle that the scheme of this survey was discussed and determined in the Christmas assembly of 1085, and from the colophon of Domesday Book that the sur vey (descriptio) was completed in io86. But Domesday Book (liber), although compiled from the returns of that survey, must be carefully distinguished from them ; nor is it ccrtain that it was compiled in the year in which the survey was made. For the mak ing of the survey each county was visited by a group of royal officers (legati), who held a public enquiry, probably in the great assembly known as the county court, which was attended by repre sentatives of every township, as well as of the local lords. The unit of enquiry was the Hundred, and the return for each Hundred was sworn to by 12 local jurors, half of them English and half Normans. What is believed to be a full transcript of these original returns is preserved for several of the Cambridgeshire Hundreds, and is of great illustrative importance. The Inquisitio Eliensis, the "Exon Domesday" (so called from the preservation of the volume at Exeter), and the second volume of Domesday Book, also contain the full details which the original returns supplied.
The original ms. of Domesday Book consists of two volumes, of which the second is devoted to the three eastern counties, while the first, which is of much larger size, comprises the rest of Eng land except the most northerly counties. Of these the north-west erly portion, which had Carlisle for its head, was not conquered till some years after the survey was made; but the omission of Northumberland and Durham has not been satisfactorily ex plained. There are also no surveys of London, Winchester and some other towns. For both volumes the contents of the returns were entirely rearranged and classified according to fiefs. In stead of appearing under the Hundreds and townships they now appeared under the names of the local "barons," i.e., those who held the lands directly of the crown in fee. In each county the list opened with the holding of the king himself (which had possibly formed the subject of separate enquiry) ; then came those of the churchmen and religious houses; next those of the lay tenants in-chief (barones); and last those of women, of the king's ser jeants (servientes), of the few English "thegns" who retained land, and so forth. The two volumes are distinguished even more sharply by the exclusion from the larger one of certain details such as the enumeration of the live stock, which would have added greatly to its size. It has been suggested that the eastern coun ties' volume represents a first attempt, and that it was found im possible, or at least inconvenient, to complete the work on the same scale.
For the object of the survey we have three sources of informa tion: (1 ) the passage in the English Chronicle, which tells us why it was ordered, (2) the list of questions which the jurors were asked, as preserved in the Inquisitio Eliensis, (3) the contents of Domesday Book and the allied records mentioned above. Al though these can by no means be reconciled in every detail, it is now generally recognized that the primary object of the survey was to ascertain and record the fiscal rights of the king. These were mainly (I) the national land-tax (geldum), paid on a fixed assessment, (2) certain miscellaneous dues, (3) the proceeds of the crown lands. After a great political convulsion such as the Norman Conquest, and the wholesale confiscation of landed es tates which followed it, it was William's interest to make sure that the rights of the crown, which he claimed to have inherited, had not suffered in the process. The Domesday survey therefore re corded the names of the new holders of lands and the assessments on which their tax was to be paid. But it did more than this; by the king's instructions it endeavoured to make a hational valuation list, estimating the annual value of all the land in the country, (I ) at the time of King Edward's death, (2) when the new owners received it, (3) at the time of the survey, and further, it reck oned, by command, the potential value as well. It is evident that William desired to know the financial resources of his kingdom, and probable that he wished to compare them with the existing assessment, which was one of considerable antiquity, though there are traces that it had been occasionally modified. The great bulk of Domesday Book is devoted to the somewhat arid details of the assessment and valuation of rural estates which were as yet the only important source of national wealth. After stating the as sessment of the manor, the record sets forth the amount of arable land, and the number of plough-teams (each reckoned at eight oxen) available for working it, with the additional number (if any) that might be employed; then the river-meadows, woodland, pas ture, fisheries (i.e., weirs in the streams), water-mills, saltpans (if by the sea) and other subsidiary sources of revenue; the peasants are enumerated in their several classes; and finally the annual value of the whole, past and present, is roughly estimated. Both in its values and measurements, the survey's reckoning is crude.
Apart from the wholly rural portions, which constitute its bulk, Domesday contains entries of interest concerning most of the towns, which were probably made because of their bearing on the fiscal rights of the crown therein. These include fragments of custumals, records of the military service due, of markets, mints, and so forth. From the towns, from the counties as wholes, and from many of its ancient lordships, the crown was entitled to archaic dues in kind, such as honey. The information of most general interest is that on political, personal, ecclesiastical and social history, which only occurs sporadically and, as it were, by accident. Much of this was used by E. A. Freeman for his work on the Norman Conquest. Although unique in character and of priceless value to the student, Domesday will be found disap pointing and largely unintelligible to any but the specialist. Even scholars are unable to explain portions of its language and of its system. This is partly due to its very early date, which has placed between it and later records a gulf that is hard to bridge.
But in the Dialogus de scaccario (temp. Hen. II.) it is spoken of as a record from the arbitrament of which there was no appeal (from which its popular name of "Domesday" is said to be de rived) . In the middle ages its evidence was frequently invoked in the law-courts; and even now there are certain cases in which appeal is made to its testimony. To the topographer, as to the genealogist, its evidence is of primary importance ; for it not only contains the earliest survey of a township or manor, but affords in most cases the clue to its subsequent descent. The rearrange ment on a feudal basis, of the original returns (as described above) enabled the Conqueror and his officers to see with ease the extent of a baron's possessions ; but it also showed how far he had enf eoff ed "under-tenants," and who those under-tenants were. This was of great importance to William, not only for military reasons, but also because of his resolve to make the under-tenants (though the "men" of their lords) swear allegiance directly to himself. As Domesday normally records only the Christian name of an under-tenant, it is vain to seek for the surnames of families claiming a Norman origin; but much has been done to identify the under-tenants, the great bulk of whom bear foreign names.
Domesday Book was originally preserved in the royal treasury at Winchester (the Norman kings' capital), whence it speaks of itself (in one later addition) as Liber de Wintonia. When the treasury was removed to Westminster (probably under Henry II.) the book went with it. Here it remained until the days of Queen Victoria, being preserved from 1696 onwards in the Chapter House, and only removed in special circumstances, as when it was sent to Southampton for photozincographic reproduction. It was eventually placed in the Public Record Office, London, where it can be seen in a glass case in the museum. In 1869 it received a modern binding. The ancient Domesday chest, in which it used to be kept, is also preserved in the building.
The printing of Domesday, in "record type," was begun by Government in 1773, and the book was published, in two volumes fol. in 1783 ; in 1811 a volume of indexes was added, and in 1816 a supplementary volume, separately indexed, containing (I) the "Exon Domesday" (for the south-western counties), (2) the In quisitio Eliensis, (3) the Liber Winton (surveys of Winchester early in the I2th century), and (4) the Boldon Book—a survey of the bishopric of Durham a century later than Domesday. Pho tographic facsimiles of Domesday Book, for each county sep arately, were published in 1861-63, also by Government.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-The following are the more important works to be Bibliography.-The following are the more important works to be consulted:—R. Kelham, Domesday Book, illustrated (1788) ; H. Ellis, General Introduction to Domesday Book (1833), containing valuable indexes to the names of persons; N. E. S. A. Hamilton, Inquisitio Cantabrigiensis (1876), containing transcripts of the original returns and the text of the Inquisitio Eliensis; E. A. Freeman, History of the Norman Conquest, vols. iv. and v.; F. Seebohm, The English Village Community (1883) ; Domesday Studies (1888, 1891), on the occasion of the Domesday Commemoration (1886) , by various writers with bibliography to date ; J. H. Round, Feudal England (1895) ; F. W. Maitland, Domesday Book and Beyond (1897) ; P. Vinogradoff, Villainage in England (1892) , Growth of the Manor and English Society in the Eleventh Century; A. Ballard, The Domesday Inquest (1906), an excellent summary; W. H. Stevenson, "A contemporary description of the Domesday Survey" in The English Historical Review (the general index to which should be consulted) (19o7). The Victoria County History contains a translation of the Domesday text, a map, and an explanatory introduction for most counties. For the Cheshire and Lincolnshire surveys see the editions published respectively by the Chetham and Lincoln Record Societies (1916, 1924) . (J. H. R.)