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jOMESDAY BOOK was the Norman William's Rent-Roil of his conquered
Kingdom. It was an inventory of all the Manors and territorial possessions
throughout England, and every thing appertaining to them which could
indicate their value with a reference to taxation or the supply of men and arms to the
King in his wars. For this purpose it recorded the name of every tenant-in-chief holding
his lands immediately from the sovereign ; the names of each of his under-tenants; the
extent and nature of their respective occupations ; the rental value of each as estimated
at three different periods ; and the amount of population attached to the soil ; thus
furnishing, as it were, a rateable value of the whole Kingdom and of every part of it,
by means of which, as a basis, taxes might be levied, whether required in the form of
money or men. It is still recognised as a legal document, and is occasionally appealed
to in courts of law; but its value to the general reader does not consist so much in
its statistical information as in its references to habits and manners, and even to history,
which now and then crop out from the dry catalogue of serfs and swine, ploughlands
and pastures, and give us a little insight into the life of our rude ancestors of eight
hundred years ago.

The name of Domesday was undoubtedly given to the Record on account of
its strict judicial character. The term had been in use previously. Alfred had called
his Code of Saxon Laws " Dom-Boc," the Book of Doom or Judgment : and the
present would be a standing register from which judgment was to be given upon the
value, tenure, and services of the lands throughout the Kingdom. Rudborne says:
" Vocatus Domysday : et sic vocatur quia nuUi parcit, sicut nee magnus Dies Judicii."
The hypothesis of Stow that its name is a corruption of '* Domus Dei," on account of
the document having been preserved in the treasury of the Church of Winchester, will
not bear investigation.

The Feudal System, which had only partially prevailed under the Saxon Kings,
was established throughout the whole Kingdom after the Conquest. Such, we might
naturally expect, would be the case. William, claiming the Kingdoni as his by
inheritance, but possessing no standing army of any importance by means of which to
enforce his claim, invited assistance from every quarter, promising ample reward to all
who should aid him in gaining possession of his dominions*: and the Domesday Record

'"^ " The proclamation, or what we should term now-a-days the published recruiting notice, of the
Duke of Normandy, is still to be read in the archives of S. Vallery, in which full military pay, and a share
in the general pillage of England, are promised to every man of robust frame and tall stature who would enlist
into the Norman army of invasion with lance, sword, and cross-bow."—Musgrave*s By-Roads and Bailie-Fields,