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