A HISTORY OF DORSET 



Table 2 {contd.) 



a Previous \alue as given by Domesday, b Previous value deduced by assuming no change. 

 c Supplied from Exon. Domesday. 



The Domesday survey does not give any pre-Conquest details for the peasantry in 

 Dorset as it does for some other counties. In 1086 the peasants in Dorset consisted 

 mainly of villani and bordars, with smaller numbers of cottars and cotsets, 33 coliberti, 

 and over 1,000 serzi. There were no sokemen or liberi homines as there were in the 

 eastern counties, and no radknights as in some western counties, but 6 men {homines) 

 held Ringstead (no. 463) at farm and there were 4 men {homines) paying 12s. ^d., 

 apparently as rent, at Galton (no. 507). They may have been the same as the 4 free men 

 {liberi hoinines) who held Galton T.R.E. Rent-paving tenants {censores) are recorded at 

 Askerswell (nos. 1 19 and Ixv) where there were 2 paj'ing 15^., and at Allington (no. 253) 

 where there were 9 paying 1 1^. Two French Serjeants {serrientes francigeid) are recorded 

 at Cerne (no. 157) and 2 free Englishmen {Angli liberi) have 4 hides at Handley (no. 

 125). A smith {faber) is recorded at Melbury Osmond (no. 183), and two priests are 

 recorded along with the peasants, one at Church Knowle (no. 235) and one at Bleneford 

 (no. 455). Table 3 shows the numbers of all the various classes of peasants in Dorset in 

 1086, with the corresponding figures as calculated by EUis^^ given in brackets. 



In Dorset, as in some other counties, the rillani are outnumbered by the bordars.^^ 

 They are clearly distinguished from the cottager class, and were obviously more 

 prosperous. Robert, Bishop of Hereford, in his description of the Domesday survey,^^ 

 says that it was concerned both with the cottagers {in tuguria tautum habitantibus) and 

 with those who had their homes and a share in the fields {in domos et agros possidentibiis). 



" H. Ellis, Gen. Introd. to Dom. Bk. ii. 419-514. The 

 population totals for each county are currently being 

 reckoned afresh in the Domesday Geography series, edited 

 by Prof. Darby: see Domesday Geog. of Eastern Eng. 

 (1952) ; Domesday Geog. of Midland Eng. (1954) ; Domesday 

 Geog. of SE. Eng. (1962) ; and Domesday Geog. of Northern 



Eng. (1962). The SSV. volume, covering Dorset, has not 

 yet been published. 



■" In Comw., Hants, Worcs., Essex, Norf., and SufF. : 

 Ellis, op. cit. ii. 432, 441, 449-50, 469-70, 488-90, 504-6. 



>» E.H.R. xxii. 73-74. 



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