THEIR CONDITION IN 1086 151 



maps l show that they were most numerous in the western 

 parts of the island, and formed as much as 21 per cent, of the 

 population of Cornwall. On the other hand, no slaves were 

 recorded in York, Lincoln, Rutland, or Huntingdon, and they 

 were only one-half of I per cent, of the population of Notting- 

 ham, and i per cent, of that of Derbyshire. Their density in 

 the western counties appears to show that the English con- 

 quest of the west was milder than in the east, and that many 

 of the conquered Britons were spared to work for their 

 conquerors. 



As a general rule, Domesday Book couples the slaves 

 with the teams in demesne, and thus shows that they were 

 employed in cultivating the demesne farm of their owners. 

 Thus at Combe, Oxon., "there are in demesne two teams 

 and two slaves ; and six villans and six bordars have three 

 teams." In the western counties the numbers of " servi " and 

 "ancillae," male and female slaves, are often recorded sepa- 

 rately ; and in Herefordshire, Shropshire, and Cheshire we 

 read of " bovarii " who are also usually coupled with the teams 

 in demesne. Mr. Round has pointed out that these bovarii 

 average two to each team, and suggests that they were the 

 slaves whose duty it was to take charge of the lord's plough 

 when it was at work ; 2 but on the other hand, it must be re- 

 membered that sometimes free (liberi) bovarii are recorded. 



The Rectitudines Singularum Personarum shows that 

 the pre-Conquest slaves were maintained by their masters, 

 and held no land. The same is true of many of the slaves 

 recorded in Domesday Book ; for while the Commissioners for 

 Middlesex often state the holdings of the several tenants on 

 the various estates, in no case is any slave stated to hold any 

 land ; and the slaves were 5 per cent, of the recorded popula- 

 tion in Middlesex. The Exeter Inquest, however, often speaks 

 of slaves with oxen, and therefore with land, in the south- 



1 English Village Community, 86. 



2 V. C. H., Essex, i. 361. 



