Domesday

or DOMESDAY BOOK (Saxon). An ancient record made in the t"«e oi rsmaimng volumes of unequal size, containing minute and accurate surveys of the lands in England. It has been printed, also. 2 Sharswood, Bl. Comm. 49, 60. A variety of ingenious accounts are given of the origin of this term by the old writers. The commoner opinion seems to be that it was so called from the fullness and completeness of the survey making it a day of judgment for the value, extent, and qualities of every piece of land. See Spelman; Blount; Termes de la Ley. It was practically a careful census taken and recorded in the exchequer of the kingdom of England. DOMESMEN (Saxon). An inferior kind of judges; men appointed to doom (judge) in matters in controversy. Cowell. Suitors in a court of a manor in ancient demesne, who are judges there. Blount; Whishaw; Termes de la Ley.

doomsday, domesdei. A record in two volumes, made by direction of William the Conqueror, containing the details of a survey of the entire kingdoni, except the counties of Cumberland, Northumberland, Durham and a part of Lancashire, and including all the demesne lands of the crown. It was completed in 1086 or 1087.

DCMESDAY - BOOK. if (Sax.) An ancient record made in the time of William the Conqueror, and now remaining in the English exchequer, consisting of two volumes of unequal size, containing minule and accurate surveys of the lands in England. 2% Bl. Com. 49, 50. The work was begun by five justices in cach county in 1081, and finished in 1086.

Doomsday, Domesdei. [from dome or doom, judgment, and day. See infra,] An ancient En^ish record, made in the time of William the Conqueror, and by his command, containing the details of a great survey of the kingdom, including all the demesne lands of the crown, and completed A D. 1087. It consists (k two volumes, a greater and a less; the greater containing a survey oi all the lands in England, (embracing thirty counties,) except the counties of Cumberland, Northumberland, Durham, and a part of Lancashire, which were not surveyed, and also Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, which are comprehended in the less^ volume. 2 Bl. Com. 49, 99. Spelman, voc. Domesdei. Cowell, Bhtini, Ducange, Cra Ws Hist. 52, 53. The original Domesday book is still in existence, fan* and legible, and is preserved in the Chapter House at Westmmster. It was formerly kept with great care in the Exchequer under three locks. Spelman. It is now printed, (its publication having been commenced in 1767 and completed in 1783,) and copies may be found in public libraries in this country, but being in the Latin of the times, with numerous contractions and abbreviations, its perusal is a work of very considerable difficulty. This venerable record, which Spebnan calls monumentum totius BritannicB ahsque controversia augustissimum, was anciently known in Latin by various names, all indicating the general object of its compilation; as Liber Judiciarius, (the judgment book), Censualis Anglia, (the tax book of England), AnglicB Noiitia et lustratio, (the survey of England),* Rotulus Regis, (the king's roll); Botulus or Liber Wintonia, (the roll or book of Winton.) The English term Domesday y appears to be compounded of dome or dom^ (Sax. judgment,) and day, the precise meaning of which has been a matter of some doubt. Cowell supposes that it was made a part of the word not with any allusion to the final day of judgment, but to double and confirm the meaning, day having itself, in fact, the same meaning as dome, that is, judgment. Cowell, voc. Daysman, But that the idea of the day of judgment did enter into the original composition of the word seems clear from the testimony of the old chroniclers, who have taken some pains to explain it. In the Black book of the Exchequer it is said that this book is called by the native English domesdei, that is, the day of judgment, by a figure. {Jffic liber ab indigeniss Domesdei nuncupatur, id est, dies judicii, per metapkoram.) For as the sentence of that last severe and terrible ordeal cannot by any artifice be escaped, so where a controversy has arisen in the kingdom on subjects noticed in that book, and an appeal is made to it, its sentence can neither be impugned nor evaded with impunity. Lib, Nig. Scaec. par. 1. cap. antepenult. Again, Inmilphus has recorded that this roll was called by the English Domesday, from its comprehensiveness, embracing all the lands of the whole kingdom completely. (Iste rotulus — ab Anglicis, pro sua generalitate, omnia tenementa totius terrce integrS continente, Domesday cognominatur,) Ingulphus, cited in Spelman, These accounts of the origin of the word, given by writers nearly contemporary with the compilation of Domesday itself, are very forcibly expressive of the feelings with which this great survey of the conqueror was regarded by the native population (or indigenes) of England; the searching minuteness of its details, and its overwhelming authority as a record, suggesting to the unlettered mind of the age a comparison with the dread book of final doom itself. This great census appears to have been compiled in the following manner. The king sent five of his justices into every shire, to make the requisite inquiries by the oaths of persons living on the spot, (per provm' eialium jurajuranda,\ These persons, who are called taxatores, (assessors) were chosen from every neighborhood, and gave a particular description of their several districts, with estimates of value. Hence the unequalled minuteness of the survey, rendering almost literally true the words of Ingulphus, that there was not a hide of land in England but the king knew its value, and its owner's name, nor a pool nor a place {nee Ulcus nee locus,) that was not described in the king's roll with its rent and income. Ingulph, Hist. Oroyl. cited in Spelman. Termes de la ley. The following sketch of the general plan of Domesday may serve to give some idea of its completeness as a census of England. It contains a description not only of each county, rape, lathe, hundred or wapentake, but even the smaller divisions, cities, boroughs, towns, castles, manors. Mention is made of the quantity of land in each case by the carve and acre, specifying not only whether demesne or tenemental, but its quality as whether arable, meadow, pasture, wood, fishery, marsh, common, <fec., and sometimes how much live stock, as sheep, hogs, <kc., was raised upon it: how many men each manor supported, and their condition, whether knights, husbandmen, laborers, slaves, (giving the distinctive names then used): what was the present value of its income, or what it paid as tax tribute, rent, services and customs; and what these were in the time of Edward the Confessor. This last feature of Domesday has probably led to the singular mistake of Fitzherbert and Coke, that it was compiled in the time of St. Edward. F. N, B, 16 D, 8 Co, pref. vii.