The Domesday Inquest and Domesday Book

Abstract Thus Far The analysis of the Domesday inquest has proceeded in terms of processes, namely, the collection of data, executive action, the formulation of reports, and finally, the production of Domesday Book itself Two stages have been identified in the garnering of evidence. Initial sessions were held in local centres and were overseen by the regular personnel oflocal government. Their brief was limited, being confined to, in the words of the Anglo-Saxon chronicler, ‘how many hundred hides there were in the shire, or what land and cattle the king himself had in the country, or what dues he ought to have in twelve months from the shire’. Thereafter, further sessions were held in regional courts before commissioners who were charged with receiving presentments from tenants-in-chief on the resources of their estates. Executive action, notably the resolution of disputes, was thereby set in train in a process which was to continue independently but in parallel with the ongoing Domesday inquest. In the mean-time reports of one sort or another were drawn up and sent to a central point, and GDB was subsequently abbreviated from these materials.