DOMESDAY SURVEY 



It thus appears that the book is a composite work containing (i) a copy 

 of the returns made by the land-tax commissioners in 1084 for the five 

 western counties, commonly known as the GeldroU [Inquisitio geldi) ; (2) a 

 digest from the actual returns of the commissioners appointed to take the 

 survey idescriptio) of the kingdom for each hundred in the counties of Devon, 

 Cornwall, and Somerset; and (3) a copy of the digest made by the 

 Exchequer authorities from similar returns for the counties of Wilts and 

 Dorset. Sir Henry Ellis considered it certain from the evidence of the 

 record that the time when the tax was raised was the time of the survey;' 

 and it is clear that both the Exeter and the Exchequer digests must have 

 been made after 1083. For both of them show the king in possession of 

 Queen Matilda's lands, and she died 2 November, 1083. Moreover, we 

 have it on the evidence of the colophon at the end of the Exchequer volume 

 containing the account of the eastern counties that the survey was made in 

 1086,* which is further supported by the famous passage in the Anglo- 

 Saxon Chronicle of this year recording the execution and compilation of 

 the survey. There is every reason for concluding that the Exeter Book 

 was compiled in, or not earlier than, 1086, and probably not much, if at 

 all, before the returns were sent off to Winchester. 



The work of the king's commissioners was concluded when they sent in 

 the original returns from the hundreds and their decisions thereon. The task 

 of digesting these materials was work for other hands to do. The returns 

 for Wiltshire and Dorsetshire were probably at first lodged with the bishop of 

 Sherborne and then sent on to Winchester, where they were tabulated in the 

 Exchequer form. The resting-place of the returns from Devonshire, Corn- 

 wall, and Somersetshire was with the bishop at Exeter, where no doubt the 

 Exeter Book was compiled. The compilation probably took place under the 

 direction of either the sheriff, Baldwin, or possibly Reginald de Valletorta, if 

 we may accept the entry (fol. c^jB) as correctly rendered: ' I Reginald have been 

 paying ^^24 for Ordulf's land,' which clearly points to Reginald de Valletorta, 

 who had Ordulf's land of Broad Clyst in charge for the king, and was paying 

 for it ^z\ n year (fol. 95). It is, however, more than doubtful if the use of 

 the first person in this entry is intended, and it is far more likely that the 

 ' reddi' of the text is not intended for ' reddidi ' but for ' reddit.' It seems a 

 reasonable conjecture that the original returns for Wiltshire and Dorsetshire 

 not being at Exeter, the compiler of the Exeter Book, after entering the geld 



1 The language used in reference to the withholding of headrents from Axminster manor (fol. 84^) 

 suggests at first sight that the survey was antecedent to the tax. Honiton, it is there stated, has ceased to pay 

 its headrent of 30 pence 'since the count of Mortain had it' ; Charton has done the same 'since the bishop 

 of Coutances had it ' ; Smallridge has not paid ' for the last i z years ' or, as it is put under terre occupate, 

 ' since Ralf Pomeray has had it,' nor Membury ' for the last I z years.' From these statements it would seem 

 that the survey for Devonshire was held twelve years after the spoils of conquest had been divided, unless Ralf 

 did not receive his manors until 1074. Further, for the last eighteen years the canons of Rouen have with- 

 held the headrent due from Rawridge. Now Ottery and Rawridge were given to the canons in 106 1 {Cal. of 

 Doc. France, l), and eighteen years counting from 1061 tally with twelve years counting from 1067, and give 

 1079 or J 080 as the date of the survey, which incidentally agrees with Swereford's statement in the Red Book 

 that the survey was taken in King William's fourteenth year {Red Book of Exch. Rolls Ser. i, 4 ; where, how- 

 ever, it is noted that it is uncertain whether Swereford intended to write xiiii or xxiiii) : on the other hand 

 eighteen years from 1067 brings us to 1085. The passage, though puzzling, cannot be regarded as sufficient 

 •proof of the earlier date of the survey. See Whale in Trans. Devon Assoc, xxxv. 1 56. 



' ' Anno milesimo octogesimo sexto ab Incarnatione Domini, vigesimo vero regni Willelmi, facta est ista 

 descriptio non solum per hos tres coniitatus [Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk], sed jam per alios.' Freeman, Norman 

 Conquest, iv, 691. 



I 377 48 



