THE DOMESDAY SURVEY 



in Leicestershire, where it is only six per cent., and here again we are 

 reminded that our shire occupies a border position on the edge of the 

 ' Danish ' district. It is, however, of more importance, perhaps, to 

 observe that Domesday, in this county, associates the serfs closely, in its 

 entries, with the lord's demesne, giving us thereby a clear hint as to their 

 sphere of labour. It was pointed out by Ellis as a peculiarity of North- 

 amptonshire that its survey ' appears to class the priest with the villeins 

 and bordarii ' (the class below the villeins) ; but to this I do not attach 

 much importance. Some light is thrown on the rural economy of the 

 shire and on its agricultural classes by the valuable ' Liber Niger ' of 

 Peterborough, which is about forty years later than the Domesday Survey.^ 

 Prominent in that record are the ' full ' villeins holding a ' virgate ' (or 

 yardland) each, and the ' half villeins with half a virgate. These tenants 

 were bound to perform certain work on the lord's demesne in addition to 

 the payments due from them in money or in kind. It is notable that 

 at South Luifenham and Kelthorpe, in the Rutland portion of the shire, 

 Domesday specifies that this labour was not limited, but was to be such 

 as the reeve commanded.* 



Ironworks or forges are mentioned at Gretton and Corby, and 

 ' smiths ' at Towcester and Green's Norton. For these the forests of the 

 shire would provide abundant fuel. Markets are mentioned at Oundle 

 and at Higham (Ferrers), the former being valued at twenty-five shillings 

 a year, and the latter at twenty. The ' forum ' also at King's Sutton, 

 entered as worth twenty shillings, was doubtless a market. The ' money- 

 changers ' of the market at Oundle and the payments due from them to the 

 abbot are mentioned some forty years later in the Peterborough ' Liber 

 Niger.' Quarries, which are mentioned in Sussex and Surrey, are not 

 spoken of in Northamptonshire ; but this is no proof that they did not 

 then exist there. 



In addition to their value for fuel, for fences, and for building pur- 

 poses, the forests contributed so largely to the wealth of the rural district 

 by the sustenance their ' pannage ' afforded to great herds of swine, that 

 their extent, in some counties, was reckoned on the basis of their swine. 



Apart from the forests of Rockingham and Whittlebury — the influ- 

 ence of which on the settlement of the shire is suggested by the Domes- 

 day map — Northamptonshire was rich in woodland. Although on those 

 manors where the woodland was of small extent we find it measured in 

 ' acres,' its usual mensuration is of a complicated character. Mr. Eyton, 

 in his essay on the Dorset Domesday, discussed the peculiar measures 

 employed for the purpose by the survey in Dorset as in Northampton- 

 shire.' In the latter county woodland was measured by perches, furlongs 

 {quarentena), and leagues {leucce). It is of some importance to determine 

 the meaning of these words, in order to form an approximate conception 

 of the extent of woodland existing in 1086. Perches and furlongs speak 



' It was printed by the Camden Society as an appendix to the Chronicon Petrohurgense. 

 ' ' Homines operantur opera Regis quas praepositus jusserit' {D. B., fo. 219). 

 ' The Dorset Survey (1878), pp. 24-35, 57 et seq. 



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