DORSET GELD ROLLS 



The Geld Rolls preserved in Exon. Domesday relate to the five south-western 

 counties originally covered by the volume. There are three differing versions of the 

 Wiltshire roll, each the work of a separate scribe,' but the Geld Rolls for Dorset,^ 

 Devon, Cornwall, and Somerset^ seem all to be written in one hand. At the foot of 

 folio 82 in the Somerset roll a different hand appears and also writes folio 82b, but the 

 detached portion of the Somerset rolH seems to be the work of the main scribe. Both 

 hands can be recognized in Exon. Domesday itself. Three different hands at least can be 

 identified in the Dorset section of Exon. Domesday, and two of these hands are 

 identical with those of the Geld Rolls. The first scribe (A) who wrote the entry relating 

 to Child Okeford on folio 25 can be identified as the main writer of the Geld Rolls. 

 The second scribe (B) wrote the entry for Puddletown which follows that for Okeford 

 on folio 25 ; he does not appear to have written any part of the Geld Rolls. The third 

 scribe (C), who wrote the entries for Portland and Fleet on folio 26, seems to be the 

 subsidiary scribe who wrote part of folio 82 and folio 82b in the Geld Rolls. In addition 

 to these three hands a fourth scribe (D) seems to have written folio 47, covering the 

 land of William of Moyon in Wiltshire and the beginning of his land in Dorset. 



The Geld Rolls are arranged hundred by hundred. Under each hundred the number 

 of hides in the hundred is entered first, followed by the total amount of exempt 

 demesne held by the tenants-in-chief, which is then broken down into the demesne of 

 each tenant-in-chief by name. The number of hides from which the king received or 

 should have received geld follows and the amount of geld paid. 5 Lastly there are 

 details of exemptions and defaults. In some hundreds the details of the account do not 

 tally with the stated number of hides in the hundred. Usually the discrepancy is quite a 

 minor one, a matter of one or two virgates, and in some cases fractions have been 

 omitted from the total, but in two cases the difference is more serious. In Langeberge 

 hundred, according to the Geld Roll, there should be 84 hides, but the details of the 

 account add up to 88| hides and 4 acres. In Aileveswode hundred there should be 73 

 hides, but the details add up to 78 hides, i| virgate. In the same way, but less frequently, 

 the total amount of exempt demesne does not always tally with the sum of the individual 

 demesnes. In Canendone hundred the king's barons are said to have 22 hides and | 

 virgate in demesne, but in fact they held a total of 20 hides and 1 1 virgate less 5 acres. 

 In Puddletown hundred the king and his barons are said to have 47 hides less \ virgate 

 in demesne, but in fact they had 36 hides, 2\ virgates.^ Occasionally the Geld Rolls 

 include non-gelding carucates as part of the exempt demesne. In Yetminster hundred 

 there were 47 hides. The Bishop of Salisbury had tanturn terre . . . quantum (possunt) 

 arare vi carruce. The barons had in demesne 6 hides, i virgate, and 6 carucates, and 

 the bishop 6 carucates. These six carucates can easily be identified as the terra vi 



' Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), iv. i-6 (ff. i-3b), 6-11 (ff. ' In a number of hundreds the amount of geld paid 



7-9b), 12-18 (ff. 13-16). These 3 scribes did not write any precedes the amount of exempt demesne, 



other part of the Geld Rolls. For a further discussion of ' This error of a round 10 hides probably represents 



the palaeography of the Geld Rolls, see V.C.H. Wilts, ii. a slip on the part of the scribe. Another such slip can be 



169. observed in the account of Haltone hundred. There the 



'■ Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), iv. 18-26 (fif. 17-24). king's barons have in demesne xxxviii hidas et dimidiain 



' Ibid. 56-74 (ff. 63-82). et in virgas, that is 39 hides, i virgate. In fact they had 



■• Ibid. 489-90 (ff. 526b, 527). An occasional word or 38 hides, 3 virgates. What the scribe meant to write was 



two in the main section of the Geld Rolls (ff. 17-24 and plainly xxxz'iii hidas et dimidiam et i virgam. 

 63-82) may be in another hand or hands. 



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