DOMESDAY BOOK. 
798 
proclamation of “ O yes, O yes 1” in our courts of law, commanding 
silence ; which is a corruption of the French word, Oyez, Listen, and 
has been retained ever since the pleadings were held in that language. 
Doomsday, or Domesday Book. 
This is a very ancient record, made in the time of William I. an<i 
containing a survey of all the lands of England. It consists of twO 
volumes. The first is a large folio, written in thirty-eight double 
pages of vellum, in a small, but plain character ; each page having 
a double column. Some of the capital letters and principal pas- 
sages are touched with red ink ; and some have strokes of red 
ink run across them, as if scratclied out. This volume contains the 
description of thirty-one counties. The other is in quarto, written 
upon four hundred and fifty double pages of vellum, but in a single 
column, and in a large but very lair character. It contains the 
counties of Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, part of the county of Rutland, 
included in that of Northampton, and part of Lancashire in the 
county of York, and Chester. 
This work, according to the red book in the exchequer, was begun 
by order of William the Conqueror, w'ith the advice of his parliament, 
in the year of our Lord 1080, and completed in 1086. The reason 
given for taking this survey, as assigned by several ancient records 
and historians, was, that every man should be satisfied with his own 
right, and not usurp with impunity what belonged to another. But 
besides this, it is said by others, that now all those who possessed 
landed estates became vassals to the king, and paid him so much 
money by way of homage, in proportion to the lands they held. This 
appears very probable, as there was at that time extant, a general 
survey of the whole kingdom, made by order of king Alfred. 
For the execution of the survey recorded in Domesday book, 
commissioners were sent to every county and shire, and juries sum- 
moned in each hundred, out of all orders of freemen, from barons 
down to the lowest farmers. The commissioners were to he informed 
by the inhabitants, upon oath, of the name of each manor and that 
of its owner; also by whom it was held in the time of Edward the 
Confessor; the number of hides, the quantity of wood, of pasture, 
and of meadow land ; how many ploughs were in the demesne, and 
how many in the tenanted part of it ; how many mills, how many 
fishponds or fisheries, belonged to it ; with the value of the whole 
together in the time of king Edward, as well as when granted by 
king William, and at the time of this survey ; also, whether it 
was capable of injprovement, or of being advanced in its value. 
They were likewise directed to return the tenants of every degree, 
the quantity of lands then and. formerly held by each of them, what 
W'as the number of villains or slaves, and also the number and kinds 
of their cattle and livestock. These inquisitions being first method- 
ized in the country, were afterwards sent up to the king’s exchequer. 
This survey, at the time it was made, gave great offence to the 
people ; and occasioned a jealousy that it was intended for some new, 
imposition. But notwithstanding all the precaution taken by the 
