PREFACE.
 

The word Domesday, or Doomsday, (in Anglo-Saxon domes-dwg,) means literally the day on  which the

king, or other judge in his place, sat  to hear trials and give judgment.   Criminal causes were, in general,

easily decided, bufc civil actions presented greafcer obscurity, from the variety of tenures of property, and

the difficulty of arriving  at  a correct knowledge  of the  facts connected with  them.   It  thus became

necessary to form some general and authentic body of the Information which the Court required ;  and the

Domesday-Book was a register of such facts upon the authority of which judgment was to be  given on

those questions then of paramount importance, the value, tenures, and Services of land.    It is the record of

a census made under the infhienee and in the interests of feudalism.

     Amon'g all people,  at a certain period of their advance  in social progress, some such general inquisition

was found necessary for the establishment of social order.    Such was the census among the Eomans, which

was first carried into practise under the reign of Servius Tullius, in the year of Rome 187.   Ic was no doubt

partly also for civil purposes that the Jews were from time to time " numbered," as recorded in  the Scrip-

tures.  This "numbering"  appears to have been often considered and feit  by the people  as  an act of

tyranny,  and David incurred  God's anger on one occasion by wilfully subjecting the people of Israel to a

new census. (2 Sam. xxiv. and 1 Chron. xxi.)   Our forefathers in the time of William the Norman appear

to have looked upon the census ordered by that  king with much the same feelings.    The writer of  the

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, under the year 1085,  records with unmistakable  sentiments of grief that in that

year, " the king had a great Council,  and very deep speech with his witan (or counsellors)  about this land,

how it was peopled, or by whafc men ;  then he sent his men over all England,  into every shire, and caused

to be ascertained how many hundred hides were in the shire, or what land the king himself had, and cattle

within the land,  or what dues he ought to have,  in twelve months, from the shire.   Also he caused to be

written how much land his archbishops had, and his suffragan bishops, and his abbots, and his earls ; and—

though I may narrate somewhat prolixly—what or how much  each man had  who was a holder  of land in

England, in land, or in cattle, and how much money it might be worth.   So very narrowly he caused it to

be traced out, that there was not one Single hide,  nor one virgate  of  land, nor even—it is shame to  teil,

though it seemed to him no shame to do—an ox, nor a cow, nor a swine, was left, that was not set down

in this writ. And all the writings were brought to him afterwards."  These writings, abridged and  Condensed'

into one body, formed that invaluable record we  call the Domesday-Book, which was completed in the year

following.   It may be remarked that there are circumstances in the text of the Domesday-Book  as we now

have it, which seem to imply the existence  of surveys of a  similar character made in Anglo-Saxon times, at

all events under Edward the  Confessor,  which furnished some of the  Information contained in the  later

record.

     The object of the Domesday-Book was, as intimated above, to furnish in the king's court an authentic

 record of facts for reference, on the conflicting claims which arose continually out of the feudal tenures,

 especially at a  period so soon after the redistribution of lands which followed the Norman Conquest.   The

 manner in which the king's design was carried into effect was as follows :—Commissioners, under the  title