Читать книгу History of the Fylde of Lancashire онлайн

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After the country had been restored to peace, William determined to institute an inquiry into the condition and resources of his kingdom. The records of the survey were afterwards bound up in two volumes, which received the name of the Domesday Book, from Dome, a census, and Boc, a book.

The king’s commands to the investigators were, according to the Saxon Chronicle, to ascertain—“How many hundreds of hydes were in each shire, what lands the king himself had, and what stock there was upon the land; or what dues he ought to have by the year from each shire. Also he commissioned them to record in writing, how much land his archbishops had and his diocesan bishops, and his abbots and his earls; what or how much each man had, who was an occupier of land in England, either in land or stock, and how much money it was worth. So very narrowly, indeed, did he commission them to trace it out, that there was not one single hide, nor a yard of land; nay, moreover (it is shameful to tell, though he thought it no shame to do it), not even an ox, nor a cow, nor a swine, was there left that was not set down in his writ.” The examination was commenced in 1080, and six years afterwards the whole of the laborious task was accomplished. In this compilation the county of Lancaster is never once mentioned by name, but the northern portion is joined to the Yorkshire survey, and the southern to that of Cheshire.