Residents of Hampstead might not be excessively please to learn that their single London greenwich village once housed more pigs than people but this is just one of the bewitching insights to be gained from reading the Domesday Book .
After the Norman invasion and conquest of England in 1066, the Domesday Book was commissioned in December 1085 by order of William The Conqueror. William needed to raise taxes to pay for his army and so a survey was set in motion to assess the wealth and and assets of his subjects throughout the estate. This survey was besides needed to asses the department of state of the area ’ s economy in the consequence of the Conquest and the unrest that followed it .beginning published in 1086, it contains records for 13,418 settlements in the English counties south of the rivers Ribble and Tees ( the border with Scotland at the prison term ).
Reading: The Domesday Book
The information in the survey was collected by Royal commissioners who were sent out around England. The country was split improving into 7 regions, or ‘ circuits ’, with 3 or 4 commissioners being assigned to each. They carried with them a set of questions and put these to a jury of representatives – made up of barons and villagers alike – from each county. Once they returned to London the information was combined with earlier records, from both before and after the Conquest, and was then entered, in Latin, into the final Domesday Book .
american samoa well as valuing assets, this intrigue document gives a valuable penetration into land use at the prison term, the life of local landowners, and even disputes between neighbours.
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By studying individual entries it is potential to discover that upmarket Hampstead in London had woodland containing 100 pigs and was assessed as being worth 50 shillings. Brighton residents may enjoy fishing but how many catch adequate to pay their taxes ? The Domesday Book reveals that one Brighton landowner did precisely that – with 4,000 herrings to be accurate !
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It acquired the name ‘ Domesday Book ’ because of the huge measure of information that was contained in it. indeed, it was noted by an observer of the survey that “ there was no one hide nor a yard of domain, nor indeed one ox nor one cow nor one hog which was left out ”. This led the ledger to be compared to the end Judgement, or ‘ Doomsday ’, described in the Bible, when the deeds of Christians written in the Book of Life were to be placed before God for sagacity. The name ‘ Domesday Book ’ was not adopted until the late twelfth hundred .
The Domesday Book is actually not one reserve but two. The first volume ( Great Domesday ) contains the final sum up read of all the counties surveyed except Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk. For these three counties the fully, unabbreviated revert sent in to Winchester by the commissioners is preserved in the second bulk ( little Domesday ), which, for some argue, was never summarized and added to the larger bulk .
Containing 413 pages, it is presently housed in a specially made chest of drawers at London ’ s Public Record Office in Kew, London .
