Domesday terminology

Domesday Book uses a specialised vocabulary drawn from the administrative language of Norman England. The terms below appear throughout the survey. Understanding them is essential for reading Domesday entries and for interpreting the manorial assessments that shaped tenure records for centuries afterward.

Units of assessment

Hide (hida). The standard unit of tax assessment in southern and midland England. The hide was not a fixed area of land. It was a fiscal measure, representing the amount of land notionally sufficient to support one household. In practice, the number of hides assigned to amanor reflected its taxable capacity, not its acreage. A five-hide manor was not necessarily five times the area of a one-hide manor. It bore five times the tax burden. The acreage represented by a hide varied by region: 120 acres in some counties, 40 in others. The VCH for Hampshire and Sussex uses hides as the standard measure.

Carucate (carucata). The northern equivalent of the hide, used in the Danelaw counties (Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, and neighbouring shires). Like the hide, it was a fiscal unit, not a measure of area. The word derives from caruca, a heavy plough.

Plough team (caruca). The economic measure of a manor's agricultural capacity. One plough team consisted of eight oxen and the plough they drew. Domesday records how many plough teams a manor had in demesne (working the lord's land) and how many the tenants had. The number of plough teams gives a rough measure of how much land was under cultivation.

Classes of people

Villein (villanus). The most common class of tenant recorded in Domesday. Villeins were tied to the manor. They held land in return for labour services on the lord's demesne, typically two or three days per week, with additional work at harvest. They could not leave the manor or sell their holding without the lord's permission. The villein's holding was usually 15 to 30 acres.

Bordar (bordarius). A smallholder, ranked below the villein. Bordars held smaller plots, typically five acres or less, and owed less labour service. They supplemented their income by working for wages on the demesne or on other tenants' land. Domesday records approximately 82,000 bordars across England.

Serf (servus). An unfree labourer with no land of his own. Serfs worked full-time on the lord's demesne. They were the property of the lord and could be bought and sold with the manor. Domesday records approximately 28,000 serfs. The class had effectively disappeared by the thirteenth century.

Freeman (liber homo). A tenant who held land freely, owing rent or light services but not tied to the manor. Freemen could sell or bequeath their land without the lord's consent. They were most numerous in East Anglia and the Danelaw.

Sokeman (sochemannus). A free tenant who owed suit of court to the lord's soke (jurisdiction) but was otherwise free to deal with his land. Sokemen were concentrated in the eastern counties, particularly Lincolnshire and Norfolk. Their status was between that of the freeman and the villein.

Lordship and tenure

Demesne (dominicum). The land that the lord farmed directly, as distinct from land held by tenants. Domesday records demesne plough teams separately from tenant plough teams. The demesne could be a compact block around the manor house or scattered strips in the open fields.

Tenant-in-chief (tenens in capite). A person who held land directly from the king, with no intermediate lord. After the Conquest, all land in England was held from the Crown. The tenants-in-chief, numbering roughly 1,500 in 1086, included the great earls and barons, bishops, abbots, and a smaller number of English survivors who had retained their lands.

TRE (tempore regis Edwardi). “In the time of King Edward,” meaning before the Conquest, specifically 5 January 1066 (the date of Edward the Confessor's death). Domesday entries routinely state the value and holder of a manor TRE alongside its value and holder in 1086. This allows a direct comparison of the pre- and post-Conquest tenurial settlement.

Administrative divisions

Hundred. The administrative district below the county level. Each county was divided intohundreds (or wapentakes in the Danelaw). The hundred had its own court, which met every three or four weeks to hear minor cases and transact local business. Domesday is organised by county, then by tenant-in-chief, but the hundred to which each manor belonged is recorded in the entry. In Sussex, the equivalent divisions were the six rapes, each subdivided into hundreds.