The Domesday Book

The Domesday Book says of Kempsey:

In the Hundred (Oswaldeslow) The Bishop of the same Churche (Worcester) holds Chemesege (Kempsey) . There are 24 hides paying geld, 5 of these are waste. There are 2 ploughs in the demesne, 13 villeins, and 27 bordars with 16 ploughs. There is a priest, 4 serfs and 2 bondswomen and 40 acres of meadow. The woodland is a mile long and ½ a mile wide. There are 13 hides in the demesne. In the time of King Edward it was worth £16, its present value is £7.

Definitions:

acre - An acre was how much land could be ploughed by one team of oxen in one day. It was usually an area one furlong (220 yards) long by one chain (22 yards) wide.

Bishop - Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, 1061-95, was the only English bishop to be retained by King William. He was a simple and saintly man. He had holdings in Gloucestershire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire (including Kempsey).

bordar - A villein who rendered menial service for his cottage. Better in status than a cottar, less than a villein.

cottar
Cottars were the lowest level of peasant, cottagers holding 4 acres or less.

demesne - A lord's chief manor place, with that part of the lands belonging thereto which has not been granted out in tenancy; a house, and the land adjoining, kept for the proprietor's own use. Alternative forms: demain, Ancient demesne.

• Old English. demeine, demain, demesne
• Old French. demeine, demaine, demeigne, domaine, power
• French. domaine domain,
• Latin. dominium - property, right of ownership

geld - a payment. Money; tribute; compensation; ransom. Note: This word occurs in old law books in composition, as in danegeld, or danegelt, a tax imposed by the Danes; weregeld, compensation for the life of a man, etc.

hide - A hide of land was enough land to support a peasant family. Usually it was about 120 acres, but could be less in richly fertile areas such as the Severn valley.

hundred - A hundred was one hundred hides of land, or enough land to feed one hundred peasant familiies.

Oswaldslow Hundred
A 'triple hundred' was named in a charter of 964 by the authority of King Edgar (Edgar the Peaceful). It was named after Bishop Oswald (961-992), and created by the merging of Cuthburgelow, Winburgetreow and Wulfereslaw Hundreds.

plough
Plough (American English = 'plow') teams often had 8 oxen (not horses), and in the richest agricultural areas like the Severn valley there were 3 to 5 per square mile.

The Reeve
The lord's official on the manor who supervised labour by the peasants.

serf - A serf is a person bound to work on a certain estate, and thus attached to the soil, and sold with it into the service of whoever purchases the land.

sokeman
A free man of peasant status who was free to leave (and often to sell) his land; often owing services or rent, and obliged to attend his lord's court. A 'soke' was land attached to a central manor for payment of dues and for judicial purposes.

villein - One who holds lands by a base, or servile, tenure, or in villenage; a feudal tenant of the lowest class, a bondman or servant. Villains were of two sorts; villains regardant, that is, annexed to the manor; and villains in gross, that is, annexed to the person of their lord, and transferable from one to another.

Definitions from Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) and Wood (1986: 213).

The questions that were asked in order to compile The Domesday Book are recorded in a text known as 'The Ely Inquiry', now in the British Library. Information in {curly brackets} is my insertion of the details for Kempsey. It says, "Here follows the inquiry made by the King's (William the Conqueror's) Barons, on oath of the sheriff of the shire and of all the barons and their Frenchmen, and of the whole hundred {Oswaldeslow}, the priest, the reeve, and six villeins of each village; in order [they asked] the name of the estate, who held it in the time of King Edward {the Confessor}; who holds it now; how many hides {24}; how many ploughs on the demesne {2}; how many among the men; how many villeins {13}; how many cottars; how many slaves {4}; how many free men; how many sokemen; how much wood; how much meadow {40 acres}; how much pasture; how many mills {0}; how many fishponds {0}; how much has been added or taken away; how much, taken altogether, it used to be worth {£16} and how much now {£7}; how much each freeman or sokemen had or has. All this [to be given] three times, that is, in the time of King Edward, as it was when King William first gave the estate, and as it is now; also whether it is possible that more [revenue] could be taken from the estate than is now being taken." (Wood 1986: 22)

(Reference: Wood, Michael 1986 Domesday: A Search for the Roots of England London: BBC Books)

There is an excellent site on the Domesday Book at http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/. You can find out the contents of the Domesday Book for anywhere in England that existed in 1066. The page for all the entries on Worcestershire is here. These include a major entry for Upton-on-Severn, and minor entries for Worcester and Severn Stoke.

If you are interested in fiction about this period of history, you might like 'The Last English King' by Julian Rathbone (published by Abacus {Little, Brown}, ISBN 0349109435). It is the story of the rise to kingship of Harold, and his defeat by William the Conqueror, as told by one of Harold's bodyguards as he is fleeing after the defeat at the Battle of Hastings.
 

© 1999 - Andy Morrall

Last updated 6^th March 2000.

E-mail: andymorrall@geocities.com

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