Domesday England

Abstract

Domesday Book is the most famous English public record, and it is probably the most remarkable statistical document in the history of Europe. It calls itself merely a descriptio and it acquired its name in the following century because its authority seemed comparable to that of the Book by which one day all will be judged (Revelation 20:12). It is not surprising that so many scholars have felt its fascination, and have discussed again and again what it says about economic, social and legal matters. But it also tells us much about the countryside of the eleventh century, and the present volume is the seventh of a series concerned with this geographical information. As the final volume, it seeks to sum up the main features of the Domesday geography of England as a whole, and to reconstruct, as far as the materials allow, the scene which King William's clerks saw as they made their great inquest.

Emotions in the Household: Emotion Words and Metaphors in Domesday Book Personal Names

“…This paper analyzes the Old English emotional vocabulary used in the vernacular names, both monothematic and dithematic, recorded around 1086 in the Domesday Book (hence DB; Darby, 1979;Forde, 1986; Hallam, 1986;Wood, 1999) and subsidiary surveys. The relevance of the DB as a source of information for the history of the English language in general (Fisiak, 1984;1985;1990;Díaz-Vera, 1996), and of late Old English onomastics in particular (von Feilitzen, 1937;Clark, 1992;Okasha, 2011) has long been recognized by scholars.…”

Land markets and inequality: evidence from medieval England

“…An early draft of the southwestern circuit (Exon Domesday) also provides detailed data. Useful summaries of the Domesday data are found in Britnell (2004), Darby (1952-67), Darby (1977), Lennard (1959), andMiller andHatcher (1978). 8 The surveys of vills contained in the Hundred Rolls yield data on both large ecclesiastical manors and small knightly manors.…”

An Overview of the Fluctuating Fortunes of Viticulture in England and Wales

“…1300. The great enquiry ordered by William I -or 'William the Conqueror' as he is known in England -that was reported in the Domesday Book of 1086 recorded vineyards in forty-two locations of late Anglo-Saxon England, notably in south-eastern and south-central areas and in East Anglia, a few of which were described as being newly planted (Unwin, 1990;Darby, 1977;Darby & Campbell, 1962). One-third of all Domesday vineyards were attached to monasteries, with the remainder located on property held by members of the nobility.…”