The order generally observed in writ ing the Survey was to set down in the first place at the head of every county (except Chester and Rutland) the king's name, Rex Willielmus, and then a list of the bishops, religious houses, churches, any great men, according to their rank, who held of the king in capite in that county, likewise of his thains, ministers, and servants ; with a numerical figure in red ink before them, for the better find ing them in the book. In some counties the cities and capital boroughs are taken notice of before the list of the great tenants is entered, with the particular laws or customs which prevailed in each of them ; and in others they are inserted promiscuously. After the list of the tenants, the manors andpossessions them selves which belong to e king, and also to each owner throughout the whole county, whether they lie in the same or different hundreds, are collected together and minutely noted, with their under tenants. The king's demesnes, under the title of Terra Regis, always stand first For the adjustment of this Survey cer tain commissioners, called the king's justi ciaries, were appointed. In folios 164 and 181 of the first volume we find them designated as " Legati Regis." Those for the midland counties at least, if not for all the districts, were Remigius, bishop of Lincoln, Walter Giffard, Earl of Bucking ham, Henry de Ferrers, and Adam, the brother of Eudo Dapifer, who probably associated with them some principal per son in each shire. These inquisitors, upon the oaths of the sheriffs, the lords of each manor, the presbyters of every church, the reves of every hundred, the bailiffs and six villains of every village, were to inquire into the name of the place, who held it in the time of King Ed ward, who was the present possessor, bow many hides in the manor, how many carucates in demesne, how many ho magers, how many villains, bow many cotarii, how many servi, what free-men, how many tenants in socage, what quan tity of wood, how much meadow and pasture, what mills and fish-ponds, how much added or taken away, what the gross value in King Edward's time, what the present value, and how much each free-man or soc-man had or has. All this was to be triply estimated : first, as the estate was held in the time of the Con fessor; then as it was bestowed by King William ; and thirdly, as its value stood at the formation of the Survey. The jurors were, moreover, to state whether any advance could be made in the value. Such are the exact terms of one of the inquisitions for the formation of this Sur vey, still preserved in a register of the monastery of Ely.
The writer of that part of the Saxon Chronicle which relates to the Conqueror's time, informs us, with some degree of asperity, that not a hide or yardland, not an ox, cow, or hog was omitted in the census. It should seem, however, the the jurors, in numerous instances, framer returns of a more extensive nature than were absolutely required by the king's precept, and it is perhaps on this account that we have different kinds of descrip tions in different counties.
From the space to which we are neces sarily limited, it is impossible to go more minutely into the contents of this extra ordinary record, to enlarge upon the classes of tenantry enumerated in it, the descriptions of land and other property therewith connected, the computations of money, the territorial jurisdictions and franchises, the tenures and services, the criminal and civil jurisdictions, the eccle siastical matters, the historical and other particular events alluded to, or the illus trations of ancient manners, with inform ation relating to all of which it abounds, exclusive of its particular and more im mediate interest in the localities of the country for the county historian.
As an abstract of population it fails. The tenants in capite, including ecclesi astical corporations, amounted scarcely to 1400; the under-tenants to somewhat less than 8000. The total population, as far as it is given in the record itself, aeaounts to no more than 282,242 persons. In Middlesex, pannage (payment for feeding) is returned for 16,535, in Hertfordshire for 30,705, and in Essex for 92,991 hogs ; yet not a single swineherd (a character so well known in the Saxon times) is entered in these counties. In the Norman period, as can be proved from records, the whole of Essex was, in a manner, one continued forest ; yet once only in that county is a forester mentioned, in the entry concerning Writtle. Salt-works, works for the production of lead and iron, mills, vineyards, fisheries, trade, and the manual arts, must have given occupation to thousands who are unrecorded in the survey ; to say nothing of those who tended the flocks and herds, the returns of which so greatly enlarge the pages of the second volume. In some counties we have no mention of a single priest, even where churches are found ; and scarcely any inmate of a monastery is recorded beyond the abbot or abbess, who stands as a tenant in capita. These remarks might be extended, but they are sufficient for their purpose. They show that, in this point of view, the Domesday Survey is but a partial register. It was not intended to be a record of population further than was required for ascertaining the geld.
There is one important fact, however, to be gathered from its entries. It shows in detail how long a time elapsed before England recovered from the violence attendant on the Norman Conquest. The annual value of property, it will be found, was much lessened as compared with the produce of estates in the time of Edward the Confessor. In general, at the survey, the king's lands were more highly rated than before the Conquest ; and his rent from the burghs was greatly increased : a few also of the larger tenants in capite had improved their estates ; but, on the whole, the rental of the kingdom was reduced, and twenty years after the Con quest the estates were, on an average, valued at little more than three-fourths of the former estimate. An instance appears in the county of Middlesex, where no Terra Regis, however, occurs. The first column, headed T. R. E., shows the value of the estates in the time of King Edward the Confessor; the second, the sums at which they were rated at the time of the survey, tenipore Regis T.R.W.
s. . s. .
Terra Archiep. Cant. 100 14 86 12 Terra Episc. Lond. 190 11 1 157 19 &el. S. Pet. West. 114 0 86 16 Eccl. Trin. Rouen 25 10 20 10 Geoff. de Mandeville 121 13 112 5 Emald de Heeding 56 0 24 0 Walter de St Waled 120 0 111 0 Terr. alior. Tenent 204 0 147 8 932 8 10 746 11 We shall now say a few words on the uses and consequences of the Survey. By its completion the king acquired an exact knowledge of the possessions of the crown. It afforded him the names of the land holders. It furnished him with the means of ascertaining the military strength of the country ; and it pointed out the possi bility of increasing the revenue in some cases, and of lessening the demands of the tax-collectors in others. It was moreover a register of appeal for those whose titles to their property might be disputed.