BORDA'RII, one of the classes o agricultural occupiers of land menetned in the Domesday Survey, and, with the exception of the villani, the largest. The origin of their name, and the exact na ture of their tenure, are doubtful. Coke (Inst. lib. i. § i. fol. 5 b, edit. 1628) calls them "boors holding a little house with some land of husbandry, bigger than a cottage." Nichols, in his Introduction to the History of Leicestershire,' p. xlv., considers them as cottagers, and that they took their name from living on the borders of a village or manor ; but this is sufficiently refuted by Domes day itself, where we find them not only mentioned generally among the agricul tural occupiers of land, but in one in stance as " circa aulam manentes," dwell ing near the manor-house ; and even residing in some of the larger towns. In two quarters of the town of Huntingdon, at the time of forming the Survey, as well as in King Edward the Confessor's time, there were 116 burgesses, and subordi nate to them 100 bordarii who aided them in the payment of the geld or tax. (Dontesd. Book. tom. i. fol. 203.) In Nor wich there were 420 bordarii : and 20 are mentioned as living in Thetford (Ibid. torn. ii. fol. 116 b, 173.) Bishop Kennett states that, " The bor darii often mentioned in the Inquisition were distinct from the sera and villani, and seem to be those of a less servile condition, who had a board or cottage with a small parcel of land allowed to them, on condition they should supply the lord with poultry and eggs and other small provisions for his board and entertainment." (Gloss. Paroch.
Antiq.) Such also is the interpretation given by Bloomfield in his ' History of Norfolk.' Brady affirms "they were drudges, and performed vile services, which were reserved by the lord upon a poor little house and a small parcel of land, and might perhaps be domestic works, such as grinding, threshing, draw ing water, cutting wood, &e." (Prof. p. 56.) Bord, as Bishop Kennett has already noticed, was a cottage. Bordarii, it should seem, were cottagers merely. In one of the Ely Registers we find Bordarii, where the breviate of the same entry in Domes day itself reads cotarii. Their condition was probably different on different manors. In some entries in the Domes day Survey, the expression "bordarii arantes" occurs. At Evesham, on the abbey demesne, 27 bordarii are described as "serviantes-curiae."(Doniesd. tom. i. fol. 175 b.) On the demesne appertaining to the castle of Ewias there were 12 bordarii, who are described as performing personal labour on one day in every week. (Ibid. fol. 186.) At St. Edmondsbury in Suffolk, the abbot had 118 homagers, and under them 52 bordarli. The total number of bordarii noticed in the different counties of England in Domesday Book is 82,634. (Ellis's General Introd. to Domesday Book, edit. 1833, vol. i. p. 82 : ii.p. 511 ; Haywood's Dissert. upon the Banks of the People under the Anglo-Saxon Govern ments, pp. 303, 305.)