World History

3.

Title of the Domesday Inquest for Ely.

1086. (Latin text, Stubbs, Select Charters, ninth edition, p. 101. Translation by the editor.)

Here is written below the inquisition of lands how the barons of the king make inquiry, namely, on the oath of the sheriff of the shire and of all the barons and their Frenchmen and of the whole hundred, of the priest, of the reeve, of six villeins of each vill. Then how the manor is called; who held it in the time of King Edward; who holds it now; how many hides; how many ploughs in demense and how many of the men; how many villeins; how many cotars; how many serfs; how many freemen; how many sokemen; how much forest; how much meadow; how much pasture; how many mills; how many fish-ponds; how much has been added to it or taken from it; how much it used to be worth altogether; and how much now; how much each freeman or sokeman had there, or has. All this thrice; that is to say, in the time of King Edward, and when King William gave it, and how it is now; and whether more can be had than is had.