DOMESDAY BOOK, or DOOMSDAY Boox, the name of one of the oldest and most val uable records of England, containing the results of a statistical survey of that country made by William the conqueror, and completed in the year 1086. The origin of the name—which seems to have been given to other records of the same kind—is somewhat uncertain; but it has obvious reference to the supreme authority of the book in doom or judgment on the matters contained in it. It was anciently known by several other names, such as the Liter de Wintonia, or Book of Winchester; and the Rotulus Wintonia, or Roll of Winchester, because it was at one time preserved in the royal treasury in that city; the Libel. Regis, or the King's Book; the Scriptura Thesauri Regis, or Record of the King's Treasury kwhere it was long kept, together with the king's seal, under three locks and keys); the Later Censualis Anglia, or Rate-book of England.
The way in which the survey was made will be best described in the words of the contemporary writer in the Chronicle. After relating how, in the year 1085, England was threatened with invasion from Denmark and Flanders, and how king William prepared for its defense by laying waste the sea-shores, and by raising the largest army that had ever been seen in the island, "billeting the soldiers upon his sub jects, every man according to the land which he possessed," the annalist goes on to say that at midwinter, when the king was at Gloucester, "he had a great consultation, and spoke very deeply with his witan [i.e., great council or parliament] concerning this land, how it was held, and what were its tenantry. He then sent his men all over Eng land, into every shire, and caused them to ascertain how many hundred hydes of land it contained, and what lands the king had in it, what cattle there were in the several coun ties, and how much revenue he ought to get yearly from each. He also caused them to write down how much land belonged to his archbishops, to his bishops, his abbots, and his earls, and—that I may be brief—what property every inhabitant of all England pos sessed in land or in cattle, and how much money this was worth. So very straitly did he cause the survey to be made, that there was not a singlg hyde, nor a yardland of ground, nor—it is shameful to say what he thought no shame to do—was there an ox, or a cow, or a pig passed by, and that was not set down in the accounts, and then all these writings were brought to him."
The survey was made by commissioners called the king's justiciaries, who seem to have had the help of the chief men of every shire. By a sworn assize or jury of the sheriffs, lords of manors, presbyters of churches, reeves [i.e., grieves or overseers] of hundreds, bailiffs, and six villeins [i.e., tenants at will] of every village, they made inquest as to the name of the place; who held it in the time of king Edward (1041-66); who was its present possessor; how many hydes there were in the manor; how many homagers or vassals; how many villeins; how many cottars; how many serfs; what plowgates in demesne [i.e., reserved in the lord's own hand]; how many freemen; how many tenants in socage [i.e., tenants by hereditary right]; how much wood; how much meadow and pasture; what mills and fish-ponds; how much had been added or taken away; what was the gross value in king Edward's time; what was the present value; and how much each free-man or soc-man has or had. Of all this there was to be a threefold return or valuation: 1. As the land was held in king Edward's days; 2. As it had been given by king 'William; 3. As it stood at the time when the survey was made; and the jurors were to say further whether the value could now be raised.
The returns thus gathered in the several shires, and their hundreds and other sub divisions, were arranged and digested iu the record which is now called the Great or Exchequer Domesday. The enumeration of the cattle and swine, which so moved the indignation of the Anglo-Saxon chronicler, was omitted from the record, doubtless because the live-stock was altering every month and year, so that an account of its numbers iu any one year could not be of permanent importance; but that the enumer ation was made, is proved by the records called Little Domesday and the Exon Domes day. These are believed to be transcripts of the original rolls or returns made by the conqueror's commissioners for the counties of Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Wilts, Dorset, Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall; and they set forth the number of horses, oxen, sheep, goats, and pigs, together with some other details left out in the compilation of the Great Domesday. The taxes were levied according to the divisions of the country given in the D. B., until 1522, when a new survey, called the New D. B., was made.