30 Domesday and Feudal Statistics 



as but 30 of the 120 acres annually under the 

 plough, as that would correctly be at the rate lf 

 arable acres, but comprehends that of a 2 course 

 shift, i.e., 1 20 acres ploughed, half in bare fallow. 

 As I understand the theory of the " free ceorls "* 



* The government Domesday Indexes (Ellis) enable the 

 postulate that the A.S. "landowners" of 1065 were con- 

 Owners of siderably more numerous than the tenants in capite and mesne 

 lords (9,000-10,000) of 1086 ; but the method of the pras- 

 Domesday List of proprietors allows no exactitude of state- 

 ment ; under the heading of Libert Homines, Thanes, Soke- 

 men, Homines, Fratres, Burgesses, and Radk nights, 6,000-7,000 

 are enumerated, and the remainder (personal names) might 

 well furnish the balance for a total 20,000. It may however 

 be observed that a principle of selection, not easy to discover, 

 has been applied to the Sokemen and Liberi Homines of 1065 

 (who account for some \ of the above 6,000-7,000), and as in 

 1086 these are practically excluded (in the 9,000-10,000 

 total), it is better to omit them, leaving 9,271 mediate and 

 immediate tenants at that date, against approximately ij.ooo 



AS 1 

 "landowners" in 1065, and a rough equation of -r^n,= - 



Certain it is that many of the A.S. landowners had incon- 

 siderable estates, as the following examples (all of the 

 Wapentake of Claro, Yorks), collated with the Indexes in 

 the Yorks Arch, and Top. Translation of Domesday, demon- 

 strate ; save where stated all were lords of seemingly whole 

 Manors, presumably had no other estate enumerated, and 

 were above the rank of the so-called free ceorls: 



There 



