THE DOMESDAY BOOK 
formerly held by Ranulf Meschin, and thrown in with the conterminous 
barony of Kendal, part of the great county of York, in order to form 
the county of Westmorland. This new fiscal area first appears in the 
Pipe Rolls of Yorkshire in 1176, under the name of Westmarieland, 
and it remained as a sub-division of the former county till the first year of 
Richard I., the sheriff of Yorkshire acting as the king’s officer and 
collecting the revenues. Westmarieland is often found as a place-name 
before these dates, but there can be no question that it was not known 
at the Exchequer as a county of the present dimensions till the years 
mentioned in the Pipe Rolls. 
The Pipe Roll of 1130 is of unusual interest, as it is the first 
national document we possess referring to Carlisle and the district. 
Earlier deeds there are, but they are chiefly of a local character, con- 
nected with the lands and endowments of the religious houses. At 
this date we find the district, which was annexed by William Rufus 
and incorporated into the English kingdom, under the administration 
of a sheriff who accounted for the king’s revenue to the Exchequer. 
The borough of Carlisle held an important place as the head or centre 
of the new administration, for it must be taken that the sheriffdom 
extended to the district outside the city boundaries. The walls around 
the city were in course of construction ; the canons of the priory were 
busy with the building of their church; the burgesses were working 
the silver mines ; Richard the Knight had been employed for several 
years as the king’s bailiff in collecting the geld of animals, a novel assess- 
ment in kind of the utmost use for stocking the king’s manors, but at 
this time passing into a money payment. It would be difficult to select 
isolated features of the sheriff’s accounts, either in revenue or payments, 
for special notice, as every item of this unique document is of great 
value. It cannot be said that the Roll, as far as it relates to Carlisle, 
possesses the fulness of detail so conspicuous in some other counties, and 
the conjecture has been made that some of the rotulets are missing.’ Be 
that as it may, the portions of the Pipe Roll which have survived shed a 
light upon Carlisle, at the date conclusively ascribed to it, which the 
history of the county could scarcely dispense with. 
In the Roll as printed by the Record Commission, a compotus’ of 
William son of Alured has been interpolated between the sheriff’s returns 
for ‘Chaerleolium’ and ‘ Westmarieland,’ which has occasioned many 
misgivings about its application to local events. We have omitted the 
section entirely, as unconnected with Carlisle or Westmorland. On 
referring to the printed book,’ it will be seen that ‘ Berchelai . . . and 
Chaerleoil, and William son of Alured’s farm of the land of the gate- 
keepers and watchmen, [and] Westmarieland’ are separate sections taken 
1 Rot. Mag. Pipe, 31 Hen. I. p. iv., ed. Hunter, Record Commission. 
2 <Willelmus filius Alur. reddit compotum de firma terre Janitorum et Vigilum. In Thesauro, 19/. 
4s. Et in liberatione Vigilis Turris de Penuesel, 16s.’ (Rot. Mag. Pipe, 31 Hen. I. p. 142, ed. J. 
Hunter). This section has been inadvertently included by Mr. Bain in the Carlisle account under 
the heading of New Pleas and New Agreements (Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland, i. 26, p. 5). 
3 Pipe Roll, 31 Hen. I. p. 133, ed. J. Hunter. 
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