Domesday and Feudal Statistics 



Plough- 

 team. 



Compara- 

 tive values 

 of imple- 

 ments and 

 oxen. 



The above terms were also used as mediaeval 

 areal measures, and when normal the same equa- 

 tions held ; the variations are well known, e.g., 

 i carucate might contain 64 acres (8 per bovate), 

 or i hide, 5 virgates of 28 acres each, and so forth, 

 so that it is necessary to know the mensuration in 

 use at a given date in any particular manor when 

 dealing with actual quantities (and yet at the same 

 date in the same manor one equation might not be 

 sufficient for all the lands in it e.g., Ramsey 

 Chartulary). 



The plough-team is often (if not always) in 

 D. B. at the rate of eight oxen per plough, but 

 there seem to have been actual ploughs of one, 

 two, and four oxen, etc. : the enumeration of 

 ploughs by the rate of eight oxen, of course, 

 predicates no similar uniformity in practice. To 

 record actual husbandry would have been difficult, 

 but to assume a like number of oxen per plough a pro- 

 ceeding eminently rational for statistical purposes : 

 it has been argued that the ploughs (as recorded) 

 varied, which does not greatly flatter the wisdom ot 

 the compilers of our national record, and seems to 

 be inconsistent with evidence like the following : 



Fo. 304*7. Bilton : 13 villans with ^ ploughs, and 5 oxen. 



Fo. 312*7. Borell : 2 villans with 6 oxen. 



Fo. 314*2. Naburn : 3 oxen ploughing there. 



Fo. 319*2. Stainton : 2 villans and 3 bordars ploughing 

 with 2 oxen. 



Fo. 323^. Dringoe : i villan with 2 oxen. 



Fo. 325*7. Newsholme : Ralph has now J plough and 

 i villan with 2 oxen. 



Fo. 328*2. Aluengi : i villan and 2 oxen.* 



* In the fourteenth century a plough might be valued at 

 is., and a single ox at about 155. ; if this comparison even 



