The Domesday Book

   The Domesday Book, or Doomsday Book, was the first official record of the property owners living in England and the amount of land they owned.  One volume has 760 pages, and the other had 900.  The information was collected and published at the command of William of Normandy.  he ordered the territory to be taken from the nobility and large landowners and divided among his followers.  William wanted to know how much land he owned, how the rest was divided and how the land was peopled.  The survey was ordered in 1085 and completed in 1086.
    The country was divided into districts.  Each district supplied census takers who knew the territory.  The count of people and the survey of land covered all the territory William controlled.  No survey was held in either London or Winchester, and the king's authority did not include Northumberland, Cumberland, Durham, or Westmorland.  Information in Domesday Book was considered final and authoritative.  Exact copies of the original Domesday Book were published in 1861 and 1865.

Courtesy of:  Ken Corbin