Domesday definition and meaning collins english dictionary. Find out how to search for your town or village, and how to access images of domesday along with an english translation, using our research guide. However, its usage continued following the ascendancy of the anglosaxons and the normans as was demonstrated by its many appearances in the domesday book of 1086. The first volume great domesday contains the final summarized record of all the counties surveyed except essex, norfolk, and suffolk.
The precise purpose of the enterprise is not known but the most likely reason was to determine who legally owned what land, to settle disputes of ownership and to measure. Origins of the domesday book from a history of the british nation by ad innes, 1912. Domesday also domesday book, doomsday book translate domesday into spanish. It has been cited as an example of digital obsolescence on account of the physical medium used for data storage.
Domesday book is the most complete survey of a preindustrial society anywhere in the world. Commissioned by william the conqueror in the year 1085 and finished in 1086, the book is a superb example of thorough and speedy administration, unequaled by any other project undertaken during the middle ages. Blackburn in lancashire is recorded in the famous domesday book of 1086 as blacheburne, and later in 1187 as blakeburn. The novel won both the hugo and nebula awards, and was shortlisted for other awards. If you also leave out the churches as tenants and the surviving english tenants, fewer than 20,000 names remain, and about 8,000 of those are identified by forename alone. The domesday book is the record of the great survey of much of england, and parts of wales, completed in 1086, done for william i of england, or william the conqueror the domesday book also known as domesday, or book of winchester was a record of all taxable land in england, together with such information as would indicate its worth as the scribes went round england. One of the most important historical events of the medieval era is the domesday book. By contemporaries the whole operation was known as the description of. The domesday book is actually not one book but two.
Doomsday book is a 1992 science fiction novel by american author connie willis. Domesday book, or simply domesday, the record of the great survey of england executed for william the conqueror. By contemporaries the whole operation was known as the description of england, but the popular name domesday i. Domesday book 1086 the middle ages encompass one of the most exciting periods in english history. The domesday book reveals that one brighton landowner did exactly that.
A comprehensive record of the extent, value, ownership, and liabilities of land in england, made in 1086 by order of william i. The shambles, one of britains best preserved medieval. For these three counties the full, unabbreviated return sent in to winchester by the commissioners is preserved in the second volume little domesday, which. The record was compiled in 10861087, a mere twenty years after the norman conquest, at the order of william the conqueror. The streets long existence has been confirmed by its first mention in the domesday book of 1086, a manuscript ordered by the william the conqueror besides being the name of the popular york street, the word shambles is a term describing a multitude of narrow, curvy streets and alleys that form a maze. The place name dates back to the domesday book of 1086 when it was first listed as munetune. Navigate a history of the british nation a manor house of the 11th century. For example, doncaster would probably have originated as a roman fort on a hill. Domesday book was preserved from the late 11th to the beginning of the th centuries in the royal. The national archives is the home of domesday book, the oldest surviving public record. The domesday book, our earliest public record, is a unique survey of the value and ownership of lands and resources in late 11th century england. Middle english an old spelling of doomsday, which was apparently applied because the book was regarded as a final authority. Surnames mentioned in the domesday book british surnames. Kivrin engle, the main character, says that her recording is a record of life in the middle ages, which is what william the conquerors survey turned out to.
Domesday book contains some 45,000 personal names, many of them duplications since tenantsinchief held land in several counties. The bbc domesday project was a partnership between acorn computers, philips, logica and the bbc with some funding from the european commissions esprit programme to mark the 900th anniversary of the original domesday book, an 11thcentury census of england. Acre acra, ager a value of land assessment used often in domesday for pasture, meadow and woodland. Rewriting history of englands domesday book of william i. Created by writerartist dan jurgens, the character had a cameo appearance in superman. Domesday book was a comprehensive survey and record of all the landowners, property, tenants and serfs of medieval norman england. Based on extensive and wideranging research, the two volumes contain over eight thousand entries on persons occurring in the principal english administrative sources for the postconquest period domesday book, the. Domesday book definition of domesday book by merriamwebster. Domesday book the domesday book was a survey designed to record everything that people owned in england. Little domesday covering norfolk, suffolk, and essex, and great domesday covering much of the remainder of england except for lands in the north that later became westmorland, cumberland, northumberland, and the county palatine of durham and parts of wales bordering, and included within. Arpent arpent having french origin, the arpent is an area of land commonly used in reference to vineyards in domesday. Domesday book dictionary definition domesday book defined. It enables us to reconstruct the politics, government, society and economy of 11thcentury england with greater precision than is possible for almost any other premodern polity.
Virtually all of the place names decided on up to around the 14th century were due to the environment of the area. In the 11th century, surnames were still in a state of flux and many people still did not have what we would consider a surname. Domesday book, the original record or summary of william is survey of england. Scandinavian elements found in the domesday book english. The name craven is either preceltic britain, britonnic or romanobritish in origin. The title of the book refers to the domesday book of 1086. Why it was written and what was involved in making it. Doomsday is a fictional supervillain appearing in american comic books published by dc comics, commonly as one of the deadliest foes of superman, as well as the justice league. Domesday book is the product of an extraordinary survey of england commissioned by king william the conqueror in 1085. Chichester, 19741992 the english translations for the great domesday counties, together with images of the latin text, are available in searchable form on cd, known as domesday explorer, published by phillimore and co. This is the first of two volumes offering for the first time an authoritative and complete prosopography of postconquest england, 10661166. It was ordered by william the conqueror the winner of the recent battle of hastings so that william could determine how much money in taxes he could raise and to give william a better sense of the territory he had just conquered. This short three minute video covers what the domesday book is.
Domesday book was a comprehensive survey and record of all the landowners, property, tenants and serfs of medieval norman england which was compiled in 10867 ce under the orders of william the conqueror r. Measurement of an acre as a multiple of hides varies in domesday from region to region. An ancient record made in the time of william the conqueror, and now remaining in the english exchequer, consisting of two volumes of unequal sizes, containing surveys of the lands in england. We learn from the english chronicle that the scheme of this survey was discussed and determined in the christmas assembly of 1085, and from the colophon of domesday book that the survey descriptio was completed in 1086.
The domesday book was compiled on the orders of william the conquerer to catalogue the ownership and value of land in the newly conquered territories of england. Domesday book encompasses two independent works in, originally, two physical volumes. In origin, domesday is just a middle english spelling of doomsday, a name which only came to be applied to the survey a century after its compilation, at first facetiously as being an unavoidable and final judgement contemporaries called it the description of england. These were little domesday covering norfolk, suffolk, and essex, and great domesday covering much of the remainder of england and parts of wales. Learn more about out why and how domesday was created, and how to interpret it, in discover domesday. Domesday book definition is a record of a survey of english lands and landholdings made by order of william the conqueror about 1086.
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