560 THE CORNWALL DOMESDAY AND GELD INQUEST. 



appointed, who collected the particulars in every county, which 

 were afterwards embodied at Winchester into the Exchequer 

 Domesday These returns were much fuller in information than 

 the Book itself, but, unfortunately, with the exception of the 

 Exeter Domesday, and the returns for the county of Cambridge, 

 they are no longer in existence. 



The commissioners' duty was to obtain information on the 

 following points, from the sworn evidence of the Sheriffs, Lords 

 of the manors. Priests, Eeeves, Bailiffs, and six villeins of every 

 village : — 



The name of the place : who held it in the time of good King 

 Edward, and by whom held now? How many hides, plough- 

 teams, freemen, villagers, and serfs ? What wood, pasture, and 

 meadow? How many horses, oxen, sheep, goats, and swine? 

 And what was its value ? 



The returns from Cornwall, taken in accordance with these 

 instructions, lend themselves readily to condensation in a tabular 

 form, and in this form I have embodied the information 

 contained in the Exchequer and Exeter Books. 



With regard to the measurements, I have already pointed 

 out, in the first part of this paper (that relating to the G-eld 

 Roll) that the hide was taken as a unit of taxation, and that 

 nominally, it was land for one ploughteam, which may be taken 

 as 120 acres, but in the western counties was probably smaller. 



The Eev. 0. J. Eeichel, F.S.A., considered the hide or land 

 for one ploughteam in Devonshire to have contained 100 acres.* 



Cornwall was a poor county, and there was often only one 

 ploughteam on land estimated as being sufficient for two. 



It is clear from the returns for Cornwall that eight oxen 

 went to a ploughteam for Exchequer purposes. 



The word " Mansio " in the Exeter Domesday I have, for 

 convenience, translated as Manor, although it may be better 

 represented by the word Hall, and Eeichel considers that in 

 Devonshire it is best expressed by " Capital Barton." 



* Trans. Devon Assoc, Vol. 28, p. 363. See also page 552 (note). 



