our present purpose, all that this venerable repository affords. hold. In order to obtain accurate information respecting the lands he had parcelled out among his warriors, he commenced in the year 1080 a survey of the whole kingdom, which nothing less than the labour of six years could complete. The commissioners whom he appointed for the execution of this work, took an account of the extent of each district, of the particular lands which the district contained, their respective proprietors, tenures, value; and of the different qualities of land, whether meadow, pasture, wood, or arable: all these different entries were established upon the verdicts of Juries. Thus whilst William procured an exact account of all the landed estates in the kingdom, he raised for posterity an inestimable monument of antiquity. Concerning this elaborate performance, Ingulphus, who was secretary to the conqueror, writes thus King William for the taxing of his whole land, tooke this order in all England, there was not an hide of land but he knew the value thereof and the possessor also, neither meire nor place their was, but it was valued in the king's role, the rents and profits, the possession and possessor, were made manifest & knowne into the king, according to the fidelitie of taxors, which being chosen out of every countrey taxed or seized their owne territories, or made their own rent role. This role is called the role, of Winton, and of the Englishmen for the generalitie thereof, containing wholie all the tenements of ye whole land, it is named Domesday. Such a role and very like, did King Alfred once set forth, in which he taxed all the lande of Englande by Shires, Hundreds, and Tythings. And this role, as is before noted, was called the role of Winton, because it was laide in Winchester to be kept, which Cittie was the head of the West Saxon kingdome, com TERRA ARCHIEPI CANTUAR, In Whaletone* Hundred. In Demesne Archbishop Lanfranc holds Cro ming unto him by inheritance: at that time among all the particular kingdomes of England most noble and famous. In this role of Winchester, so most of all called, because it was made after the example of the other, were taxed, and set downe the Earldomes, Hundreds, Tythings, Woods, Parks, and all Farms, in every territory or precinct, how many carucates of lande, how many plough landes, and acres, what pastures and fennes, or marishes, what tenements and tenants were contained. Respecting the name of this celebrated record, the following account is given in Stow's Chronicle: the Booke of Bermondsey saith, this Booke was laid up in the King's Treasury which was in the Church of Winchester, or Westminster, in a place called Domus Dei, or God's House, and so ye name of ye booke, therefore called Domus Dei; and since shortly, Domesday. This survey, kept in the exchequer, and written in a legible hand, consists of two volumes, one in large folio, the other in quarto, and may be consulted upon paying a fee of Gs. 8d.; for a transcript a charge is made of 4d. a line. Domesday has lately been published for the use of the House of Parliament, and the public Libraries, in a type cast for the purpose. Upon the survey some lines were written, in the quaint language of his time, by Robert, a Poet of Gloucester. We do not give them, (and indeed they are not worth the reader's attention) lest we should swell this note to an immoderate length. Concerning this Poet, Robert, some account may be found in Dugdale's Traveller. * This hundred of Croydon was antiently called the hundred indene, which, in the time of King Edward the Confessor was rated at 80 Hides*; now for 16 Hides and one Virgatet. Of the arable land there is twenty Carrucates. In Demesne there are 4 Carrucates and 68 of Wallington, which is now a small hamlet in the parish of Beddington, at a little distance from Carshalton towards the East. In Domesday it is always written Waleton. In some parts of Surrey the hundred is denominated from the same place that it was anciently, but the place having changed its name, the hundred goes by that new name. Salmon's Antiquities of Surrey. * A hide of Land in the time of Edward the Confessor was 120 acres; but land was not measured in England till about the year 1008, when the realm became tributary to the Danes, and for the more equal laying on of the tax the country was measured, and the money levied pr. Hide and all paid Danegeld accordingly. Domesday. A virgate was 40 acres, but was different in some places. A carrucate (derived from the latin word carruca, a little cart) was as much land as could be tilled with one plough and the beasts belonging thereto in one year, having meadow pasture and houses for householders and cattle belonging. Domesday. Villeins*, and 25 Borders†, with 34 Carrucates. So called from the latin vilis, or as Lord Coke has it, from villa. The villeins here mentioned, were such as held lands in pure villenage; from which tenure all the Copyholds in Croydon are derived. These villeins belonging principally to Lords of manors, were either villeins regardant, that is annexed to the manor or land; or else they were in gross, or at large, that is annexed to the person of the Lord, and transferable by deed from one owner to another. They could not leave their Lord without his permission; but if they ran away, or were purloined from him, might be claimed and recovered by action, like beasts or other chattels. They held, indeed, small portions of land by way of sustaining themselves and families; but it was at the mere will of the Lord, who might dispossess them whenever he pleased, and it was upon villein seroices, that is, to carry out dung, to hedge and ditch the Lord's demesnes, and any other the meanest offices; and their services were not only base, but uncertain, both as to their time and quantity. A villein could acquire no property either in land or goods but, if he purchased either, the Lord might enter upon them, oust the villein, and seize them to his own use, unless he contrived to dispose of them again before the Lord had seized them; for the Lord had then lost his opportunity. Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. ii. p. 93. + Borders were those of a less servile condition, they held small houses on the bords, or outsides of the manors; they paid with poultry, Eggs, and other provisions for the Lord's consumption, they performed vile services and domestic works, as grinding, threshing, drawing water, cutting wood, &c. &c. &c. Domesday. There is a Church and one Mill of 5 shillings, and 8 acres of Meadow; the woods yield 200 Hogs. Of the arable land Restold holds 7 Hides, of the Archbishop Ralph one Hide, and they have from thence 71lb*. and 8 shillings (de gable). The whole in the time of King Edward, and after was worth 121lb. now 27llb. to the Bishop; to his mèn 101lb. and 10 shillingst. We learn, then, from the above mentioned valuable record that the manor of Croydon belonged in the time of William the Conqueror to Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury; and we do not find that it was ever separated from that See, except in the 17th century after the death of Charles the first, as appears from documents in the Archives of Lambeth‡. The extent of the manor seems to have been nearly equal to * The pound here mentioned is as the weight of a pound of silver, consisting of 12 ounces. Domesday. The shilling consisted of 12 pence, and was equal in weight to something more than three of our shillings, thus the pound here mentioned was worth 62 shillings of our money. Ibid. Charta Miscellaneæ, Vol. xiii. During the usurpation of Oliver Cromwell, the revenues of the see were placed in the possession of Sir William Brereton, a Baronet. |