LANDHOLDERS IN A.D. 1086. Explanation of Domesday Book. S throughout this work frequent reference is made to Domesday Book it will be useful to explain here the origin and nature of that celebrated Survey, which was made by command of the Conqueror, about twenty years after his accession to the English throne. The following particulars are abstracted from Modern Domesday, or, "A Return of Owners of Land in England and Wales," in 1873, published by order of the Government. In the year 1085 serious apprehensions appear to have been entertained of an invasion of the kingdom by the Danes, and the difficulty which the King then experienced in putting the country into a satisfactory state of defence led him to form the notion of having a general survey made of the whole kingdom, so, as Sir Martin Wright observes, " to discover the quantity of every man's fee, and to fix "his homage," or, in other words, to ascertain the quantity of land held by each person, and the quota of military aid which he was bound to furnish in proportion to the extent of his holding. To secure accuracy of results, Commissioners or King's Justiciaries (Legati Regis) were appointed with ample powers to ascertain “ upon the oath of the "several Sheriffs, Lords of Manors, Presbyters, Reeves, Bailiffs, or Villans, "according to the nature of the place, what was the name of the place, who held "it in the time of the Confessor, who was the present holder, how many hides of "land there were in the manor, how many carrucates in demesne, how many "homagers, how many villans, how many cotarii, how many servi, what freemen, "how many tenants in socage, what quantity of wood, how much meadow and "pasture, what mills and fish-ponds, how much added or taken away, what was "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 estimated-1st, as the estate was held in the time of the Confessor; 2ndly, as it was bestowed by the King himself; and, 3rdly, as its value stood at the time of the survey. All these particulars were ascertained for each county, the Commissioners sending in Returns (breviates) for each county separately, and from these Returns Domesday Book, or the General Register for the whole kingdom, was compiled. It will be seen, therefore, that the object of the Conqueror's survey was to ascertain the amount of military service and other assistance upon which he could depend; and that for this purpose he instituted an inquiry of a very searching and inquisitorial character into the nature and extent of the landed possessions of his subjects, sending special Commissioners into every locality, with power to summon the inhabitants and compel them to make a full disclosure of their property on oath. Notwithstanding, however, these stringent measures for insuring accuracy, there is no doubt that the Commissioners did not always obtain or furnish correct information, and that sometimes, as in the case of the present Return, the statements of what we should now designate as the "Gross Estimated Rental," and the "Estimated Extent," are not altogether reliable. Ingulph, the historian of Croyland, in referring to the survey of the possessions of that abbey, expressly says, "Isti" (taxatores) " penes nostrum monasterium benevoli et amantes non ad verum pretium nec ad verum spatium nostrum monasterium librabant, "misericorditer præcaventes in futurum exactionibus et aliis oneribus, piisima "nobis benevolentia providentes.”—Oxford edition, p. 79. 66 With respect to the result of this inquiry, so far as it discloses the number of landowners existing at that time, it must be observed that although the Domesday Book may be considered as a fair record of the number of persons having a direct interest in land, it is almost impossible, owing to the different designations under which they are classified, to distinguish those who may properly be considered as owners from those who were in the possession of land as mere occupiers only. The following estimate, which is extracted from the work of Sir H. Ellis, may perhaps be taken as showing proximately the number of persons who can properly be regarded as having claim to be considered as holders of land upon some legally recognized tenure : ... Tenants in capite, or persons holding directly from the Crown ... ... ... ... ... Homines, or feudatory tenants holding on homage ... ... Cotarii and Coscets, or cottagers holding small parcels of land ... Radmanni, a species of tenants in socage ... ... 1,400 7,871 370 140 12 ... Milites, or persons holding under mesne Lords in respect of military service ... 248 Total of recorded landholders... 54,813 The Burgenses, or Burgesses, who were returned as 7,968, are not included in the above list, as it is impossible to distinguish those who held lands in their individual from those who held in a corporate capacity, and many of them were evidently not owners in any sense of the term. Moreover the Villeins, of whom there were 108,407, are omitted, because it is quite certain that, when they occupied small portions of land, they did so on sufferance only. In fact they were regarded as mere chattels, which could be bought or sold, and they were not allowed by law to acquire any property, either in land or in goods. It should be added that the present counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Durham were not included in the survey. A LIST OF THE INHABITANTS OF CRAVEN AND BORDERING DISTRICTS. FIVE CENTURIES AGO; BEING THE POLL TAX RETURNS OF THE WAPENTAKES OF STAINCLIFFE AND EWECROSS, 2ND RICHARD II., (A.D. 1379.) (Reproduced, by permission, from the " Yorkshire Archæological and Topographical Journal," transcribed from the original Rolls). HIS famous Tax, which was the cause of an ill-starred revolt, was framed and levied on the accession of King Richard II., as a means of raising funds to re-furnish the Treasury coffers, which had been emptied on French battlefields, and to maintain Calais and other maritime towns of France, then in the possession of England. It was in the form of a graduated poll-tax, ranging from 10 marks, at which the Duke of Lancaster was charged, down to 4d., on all lay persons above the age of 16 years, notorious mendicants excepted. The clergy were separately taxed. All married couples were charged at a single rate. These ancient Rolls are especially valuable, as they exhibit in great measure the state of society at the time; who were the Knights and Esquires; who the merchants, artificers, &c., and what the relative size and importance of the villages comprised. From these simple lists we gather the number and names of the married and unmarried inhabitants, what their degree and avocation, although these are not always stated. The same rank or trade is, moreover, not always charged alike, which must have been regulated by the income or standing of the individual. Thus, an Esquire was usually rated at 20s., but sometimes at 6s. 8d., and even 3s. 4d. Farmers of manors and granges were charged 2s.; tradesmen and artificers commonly 6d., but occasionally 1s. ; innkeepers, 2s. and 1s.; while the great mass of the people, who were engaged in agriculture, paid a groat, or 4d. Entries of the same trade are often described under different names, e.g., a smith is sometimes a mareschal, ferour, or faber; a tailor, cissor, tailliour, or taliar; a butcher, bocher, flesher, carnifex, or fleshewer; a grocer, spicer; a joiner, sagher; a shoemaker, sutor; a mason, cimentor; a builder or waller, douber or dauber; a thatcher, theker; a weaver, textor or webster; a cloth-fuller, fullo or walker; a dyer, tinctor or lystar; a merchant, mercator; a peddler pedder. One avocation (under Arncliffe*) is Emptor lanarum. This means a stapler or dealer in wool, and the person so taxed must have been, from the amount levied,-4s. 4d.,-in a large way of business. He probably bought the wool from the monks of Fountains and Bolton Abbeys, whose extensive flocks grazed on Fountains Fell and the adjoining moors. Other occupations, such as hosteler, herbeiour, miller, diker, slater, nayler, glasier, &c., are obvious and self-explanatory. The places are arranged alphabetically, and according to the modern spelling of them. Ur is short for uxor, meaning wife. |