A HISTORY OF DORSET 



are the record of a tax assessed at that amount. It has been maintained, on the 

 other hand, that the Geld Rolls are contemporary' with Domesday and are based 

 upon information collected by the Domesday commissioners, '^ but the arguments 

 advanced in support of this conclusion do not seem strong enough to outweigh 

 those for the traditional date.'' Among the latter the silence of the Anglo-Saxon 

 Chronicle, which makes no reference to the taking of a geld in 1086, is an important 

 element. 



One argument for 1086 as the date of the Geld Rolls is based on the supposition that 

 three land-holders, Manasses the cook, Serle of Burcy, and Odin the chamberlain, died 

 during the Domesdav inquest and are referred to as already dead in parts of the Geld 

 Rolls. -° It is clear, however, that the compilers of the Geld Rolls and of Domesday 

 were not consistent in their references to deceased tenants since Wulfweard White, for 

 example, is mentioned in the Dorset Geld Rolls in terms which imply that he was dead 

 while a passage in the Somerset Geld Rolls could be taken to mean that he was alive 

 and was interpreted in that sense by Round.-' As Ellis noted, the survey of Buckingham- 

 shire treats Queen JMaud as alive in 1 086 while elsewhere in Domesday she is referred to 

 as dead." Similarly it might be inferred from Domesday that Earl Godwin, Earl 

 Leofric, and Earl Aelfgar were all living in 1066. 



The fact that the Dorset Geld Rolls indicate that Peter, Bishop of Chester, had died 

 before the time of their compilation has also been cited as evidence that the Geld Rolls 

 belong to 1086, -^ but the traditional date, 1085, for Peter's death, which is given by 

 Stubbs, does not seem to be based on any contemporary' source.-^ The compiler of the 

 Burton annals gives the date of Peter's death as 1086, and he is followed by Thomas of 

 Chesterfield (d. i45i).-5 This date conflicts with the accepted date for the election of 

 Peter's successor, Robert de Limesey, who was chosen at the Christmas court in 1085^^ 

 and consecrated a little later, probably early in 1086.^^ Wharton, Chesterfield's editor, 

 accordinglv corrected the date for Peter's death to 1085, which may be the source from 

 which Stubbs derived his date. Chesterfield, however, again following the Burton 

 annals, also dates the consecration of Robert de Limesey 1088 instead of 1086. He is 

 thus two years out in his reckoning, and this mistake suggests that his date for Peter's 

 death should also be corrected, to 1084, which is perfectly compatible with the tradi- 

 tional date for the Geld Rolls. 



In Dorset, as in Wiltshire, the sizes of the baronial demesnes as given in the Geld 

 Rolls and as given in Domesday sometimes coincide, but just as frequently differ. Out 

 of 95 cases where direct comparison is possible, there are 51 instances where the 

 demesnes do not agree. Sometimes the disparitv is small, but sometimes serious. It has 

 been argued that the differences between the demesnes of the Geld Rolls and those of 

 Domesday are too great to be accounted for by a lapse of two years, but are 'precisely 

 what we should expect to find when the records of a traditional tax, collected for twenty 

 years, without the special procedure of inquisition, by local collectors, using rule-of- 

 thumb methods, are set against the figures disclosed bv the stringent and searching 

 Domesday Survey'.-^ This is a matter of opinion, and neither view is capable of proof 

 or disproof, but the fact that it is sometimes impossible to reconcile the information 



>' V. H. Galbraith, 'The Date of the Geld Rolls in " E.H.RAxv. 7; cf. Galhraith, Making of Dom. Bk. 223. 



Exon. Domesday', E.H.R. Ixv; cf. Galbraith, Making of ^ W. Stubbs, Registrum Sacrum Anglicanurn, 38. 



Dom. Bk. 87-101. " Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), i. 185; Anglia Sacra, ed. 



'« V.C.H. Wilts, ii. 174. H. Wharton (1691), 433. 



" J. F. A. Mason, 'The Date of the Geld Rolls', E.H.R. " Florence of Worcester, Chron. (Eng. Hist. Soc), ii. 



Ixix. 283-9. 18. 



" V.C.H. Som. i. 400. " J. Earle and C. Plummer, Ttco of the Saxon Chrons. 



" H. Ellis, Domesday Tables, i. 6; Dom. Bk. (Rec. PoraWW, i. 290; ii. 316. 



Com.), J, f. 152b; cf. V.C.H. Bucks, i. 273. ^' Galbraith, Making of Dom. Bk. loo-i. 



118 



