NOTE 



The reader should bear in mind throughout that the date of the 

 Domesday Survey is 1086 ; that ' the time of King Edward,' to 

 which it refers, normally means the date of his death (Jan. 5, 1066) ; 

 and that the intermediate date, which is sometimes spoken of as 

 ' afterwards ' and sometimes as ' when received,' is that at which the 

 estate passed into the hands of the new holder. When the word 

 'semper' is used it means that the figures were the same in 1086 as 

 in 1066. The Domesday ' hide ' was a unit of assessment divided into 

 four quarters called ' virgates,' each of which was reckoned to contain 

 30 acres ; but these were merely fiscal, not areal measures. In Essex 

 the word 'virgate' is of somewhat rare occurrence, '30 acres' being 

 used instead. ' Demesne,' in the Essex survey, is used in two senses : 

 manors held ' in demesne ' were those which the tenant-in-chief (who 

 held directly of the Crown) retained in his own hands, instead of en- 

 feoffing under-tenants therein ; but when ' the demesne ' of a manor is 

 spoken of, the term denotes that portion which the holder (whether a 

 tenant-in-chief or only an under-tenant) worked as a home farm with 

 the help of labour due from the peasants who held the rest from him. 

 Of the peasantry the three classes are styled, in descending order, vil- 

 leins, bordars and serfs ; above them were the ' free men ' and sokemen, 

 survivals from before the Conquest, who are discussed in the introduc- 

 tion. The essential element of the plough (' caruca ') was its team of 

 oxen, always reckoned in Domesday as eight in number. Apart from 

 the plough-oxen the live stock on the lord's demesne is generally, 

 though not regularly, entered in the Essex survey, a feature which 

 adds greatly to its length, and is peculiar to the three eastern counties. 

 It comprises horses (usually ' rounceys,' a term familiar to readers of 

 Chaucer), asses and mules, cows, ' beasts,' sheep, swine, goats and 

 hives of bees. Thus the ' astonishing attention to details ' spoken of 

 as characterizing the agricultural division of the latest census of the 

 United States, where all these are similarly enumerated even to the 

 swarms of bees, was actually anticipated in Domesday, when the 

 native chronicler bitterly complained that the king's questions were so 

 searching that not ' an ox nor a cow nor a swine was left that was not 

 set down in his writ.' 



It must be remembered that when Domesday speaks of a place as 

 held by a certain tenant, it does not follow that the whole of it is 

 meant. It may have comprised other manors, which form the subject 

 of separate entries. 



Although a new translation has been made of the whole text for 

 this work, it is but justice to say that that which was issued by the 

 late Mr. Chisenhale-Marsh in 1864 was of remarkable excellence for 

 its date, and that its occasional criticism of Morant's identifications was 

 in the main sound, though a far more sweeping revision has now 

 proved necessary. 



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