CHAPTER IX 



THE ENGLISH LAND SYSTEM {continued) 



In the year 1085 William the Conqueror caused a 

 survey to be made of all the counties of England 

 except the four northern counties. Referring to the 

 completeness with which this great undertaking was 

 carried out, one of the oldest and most trustworthy of 

 chroniclers, who wrote in the twelfth century, states : 

 '"He (the king) had subdued the inhabitants so com- 

 pletely to his will, that without any opposition he first 

 caused an account to be taken of every person ; com- 

 piled a register of the rent of every estate throughout 

 England, and made all free men of every description 

 take the oath of fidelity to him."^ 



Camden speaks of it as follows : "He (the king) 

 commanded every inhabitant of England to do him 

 homage and to swear fealty to him against all men. 

 He tooke the survey and description of the whole 

 Land neither was there an Hide of England thorow 

 but he knew both the value and the owner thereof; 

 there was neither plash nor place but set down it was 

 in the King's Roll and the rent revenue and profits 

 thereof, the verie tenure of possession, and possessour 

 himself was made knovven to the King."' 



1 William of Malmesbury's "Chronicle of the King^s of England" 

 (Bohn's Antiquarian Library). 



"^ Camden's "Britain," 1586. First translation by Philemon Holland, 

 1610, p. 1 53. A copy of this great Survey can be seen in the Public Record 

 Office, but most, if not all, of it has been translated and published. 

 The following example gives the form in which the particulars concerning 



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