The ''Liber Exoniensis'' or ''Exon Domesday'' is the oldest of the three manuscripts originating with the

Domesday Survey Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manu ...

of 1086, covering south-west England. It contains a variety of administrative materials concerning the

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon i ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord ...

and

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

. It is MS 3500 in

Exeter Cathedral Exeter Cathedral, properly known as the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter in Exeter, is an Anglican cathedral, and the seat of the Bishop of Exeter, in the city of Exeter, Devon, in South West England. The present building was complete by about 14 ...

Library.Roffe, ''Domesday: The Inquest and the Book'', pp. 94-8.

The leaves were first numbered about 1500, when they were bound as two volumes. They were rearranged and rebound in 1816, when the Record Commission edition was published. There was no 'original order' of the quires, which were in effect separate working documents. Five principal types of record can be distinguished: # The greater part consists of descriptions of manors, obtained from the returns of the Domesday survey, sometimes called the Domesday Inquest, covering Somerset, Cornwall, Devon (incomplete), Dorset (incomplete) and one entry for Wiltshire. Most entries have counterparts in Great Domesday Book, which rearranges, abbreviates, and rewords them. Exon is arranged by landholder; Great Domesday rearranged by county. # Summary accounts of

geld Geld may refer to: * Gelding, equine castration * Danegeld Danegeld (; "Danish tax", literally "Dane yield" or tribute) was a tax raised to pay tribute or protection money to the Viking raiders to save a land from being ravaged. It was cal ...

, a tax assessed on land. There are three versions for Wiltshire and one for each of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset. For every hundred, the total number of hides is given, followed by the number that were exempt because they were held in

demesne A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. The concept or ...

by the king or his

baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or kn ...

s, the number that had paid (along with the sum of money received), and the number which had not paid or for which the geld had been withheld. Elsewhere, Exon text refers to an 'Inquest of Geld' which was evidently concerned with collecting arrears and validating claims to exemption. It was undertaken at the same time and by the same royal commissioners as an Inquest of Lands which was part of the Domesday survey. # ''Terrae Occupatae'', lists of lands in Devon, Cornwall, and Somerset that were held without full royal authority. # Two lists of hundreds in each of Devon, Cornwall, and Somerset. # A handful of summaries of

fief A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of ...

s held by individual barons. There is also a schedule of some of the quires in the collection which has sometimes been mistaken for an index.

Notes

References

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External links

Exon Domesday, The Conquerors' Commissioners: Unlocking the Domesday Survey of SW England.

Contents

See also

Notes

References

External links

Further reading