Southampton and the Domesday Book

By 1085 he wanted to know how much money he could raise from taxes for his armies, so it is recorded that “he sent his men over all England, into every shire, and caused to be ascertained how many hundred hides were in the shire, what land the king himself had, and cattle within the land, or dues he ought to have, in twelve months. Also how much land his archbishops had, and his bishops, abbots, and earls; and how much each man had who was a holder of land in England, in land, or in cattle, and how much money it might be worth. So very narrowly he caused it to be traced out, that there was not one single hide, nor one yard of land, nor even an ox, nor a cow, nor a swine left, that was not set down in his writ”.

The returns were sent to Winchester, and by 1086 were transcribed into the Domesday Book, which was then presented to William.

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The word ‘Domesday’ does not appear in the book itself, but it was called ‘Domesday’ as a metaphor for the Day of Judgement because its decisions, like those of the Last Judgement, were unalterable.

The manuscript was originally known by the Latin name Liber de Wintonia, meaning "Book of Winchester", where it was originally kept in the Royal Treasury.

From the early 13th century, it was housed in Westminster and from about 1600, it was kept in a large iron-clad chest.

The Book lists the information by Counties.

They are divided into “Hundreds” - units of local government and taxation, which survived into the 19th century. There were 44 “Hundreds” in Hampshire.

The “Hundred of Mansbridge” included 16 towns and villages - Southampton being by far the largest with 185.5 Households, ranking it in the top 20 per cent of settlements in the country.

There are separate entries for Millbrook, Shirley, Nursling, and North and South Stoneham, which at that time lay outside Southampton.

Domesday lists the Saxons who held land before the Conquest and then who held it in 1086.

The entry for Southampton states 76 Saxon tenants had held land there before 1066 and that 65 French-born and 31 English-born had been lodged in the town since the Conquest. Such people paid the King taxes.

There were many additional poor people of whom no detailed record was made. The population of the town is estimated to have been between 650 and 850.

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All land belonged to the King. Southampton was divided up into 4 “Lands” or “Manors”, named after the Tenant-in-chief – this was either the King himself or the person who held the land directly from the King.

It also names the “Lords” who paid tax to the Tenant-in-chief, and were the day-to-day masters of all other residents, who paid taxes to them.

One Southampton Manor is named as “The Land of the Bishop of Winchester (St Peter & St Swithin)”. The entry lists 11 villagers, 9 smallholders, 1 slave, 9 ploughlands, 1 lord's plough team, 8 men's plough teams, meadow 23 acres, woodland 20 swine render, 2 fisheries and 3 churches. The Bishop is also a “Lord”, along with Richere the Cleric. The the annual value of the Manor to the Lords was £10.

The three other “Lands” in Southampton are “King William’s” - they had a total of 175 men,1 fishery, and an annual value of £7. One of them has 24 Lords - presumably this was the Town itself. One of these was Robert, Count of Mortain, the half-brother of King William the Conqueror and his companion at the Battle of Hastings.

In the 1860s, the first facsimile of Domesday Book was created by the new process of photozincography, under the directorship of Henry James, at the Southampton Offices of the Ordnance Survey.

A set of stamps was issued in 1986, on the 900th anniversary.

Jack Wilson is a tour guide with SeeSouthampton.co.uk .