Willelmus Rex Anglorum Lanfranco archiepiscopo salutem.... Inquire per episcopum Constantiensem et per episcopum Walchelinum et per ceteros qui terras sanctæ Ædeldrede scribi et jurari fecerunt, quomodo jurate fuerunt et qui eas juraverunt, et qui jurationem audierunt, et qui sunt terre, et quante, et quot, et quomodo vocate [et] qui eas tenent. His distincte notatis et scriptis fac ut cite inde rei veritatem per tuum breve sciam. Et cum eo veniat legatus abbatis.
Return
Hic subscribitur inquisicio terrarum, quomodo barones regis inquisierunt,[239] videlicet per sacramentum vicecomitis scire et omnium baronum et eorum francigenarum, et tocius centuriatus, presbiteri, prepositi, vi. villani [sic] uniuscujusque ville; deinde quomodo vocatur mansio, quis tenuit eam tempore R.E., quis modo tenet, quot hide, quot carruce[240] in dominio, quot hominum, quot villani, quot cotarii, quot servi, quot liberi homines, quot sochemanni, quantum silve, quantum prati, quot[241] pascuorum, quot molendina, quot piscine, quantum est additum vel ablatum, quantum valebat totum simul,[242] et quantum modo, quantum quisque liber homo vel sochemannus habuit vel habet. Hoc totum tripliciter, scilicet tempore regis Æduardi, et quando Rex Willelmus dedit et qualiter modo sit, et si potest plus haberi quam habeatur.
Isti homines juraverunt, etc., etc.
Especially important is the fact that the return contains the jurors' names, in accordance with the express injunction to that effect in the Conqueror's writ.
Now if this theory meet with acceptance, and the writ be taken to refer, as I suggest, to the Domesday Inquest itself, it follows that the Bishop of Coutances and Bishop Walchelin were the heads of the Domesday Commission for this district. This, of course, has been hitherto unknown; but it adds to the presumption in favour of the facts that Bishop Walchelin is not mentioned in any of the Ely writs as taking part in the placita concerning the Abbey's lands, and that, therefore, the only Inquest in which he could have been concerned was the Domesday Inquest itself. It should be added, however, that these two Bishops may have been, respectively, the heads of two distinct commissions for adjoining groups of counties.
The heading to the Inquisitio Eliensis is so well known, and has been so often quoted by historians, that it is a gain to fix its status, the more so as it has been loosely described as the 'official' instructions for the Survey itself. We may also determine the date of the writ as the very close of the Conqueror's reign. For it must have been issued between William's departure from England, circ. September 1086, and his death (September 1087).
And now, how was the return compiled? It deals, we find, with six counties, arranged in this order: Cambridgeshire, Herts, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Hunts. For Cambridgeshire it copies, clearly, from the original returns. For Herts it must have done so also, because it gives full details, which are not found in Domesday Book. This conclusion is confirmed by the fact that, for these two counties, it gives the jurors' names (for the hundreds dealt with), which it could only have obtained from those original returns. For Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, on the contrary, it simply gives the same version as the second volume of Domesday Book, and omits accordingly the jurors' names. The case of the four Manors in Hunts I leave in doubt, because the version in the Inquisitio (pp. 166-7) has more details than that of Domesday, though the latter is here exceptionally full, and because it places first the Manor which comes fourth in Domesday (i. 204). The additional details (as to live-stock) are such as we might expect to be derived from the additional returns; but the names of the witnesses for the Hundred are not recorded, a fact to be taken in conjunction with the belated entry of these Huntingdonshire Manors not following, as they should, those in Cambridgeshire and Herts.
In addition to the Inquisitio itself, as printed by the Record Commission, there is a record, or collection of records, which follows it in all three MSS., and which is printed in Mr Hamilton's book (pp. 168-89). Although its character is not there described, it can be determined. For in the Inquisitio there are three references to the 'breve abbatis de ely' (pp. 123-4), all three of which can be identified in the above record (pp. 175-7). It is noteworthy that the record in question is only complete in C, which confirms my view that B and its offspring A were independent of C.
Though the word Breve in Domesday Book normally means the king's writ, there are passages which seem to have been overlooked, and in which it bears another and very suggestive meaning. One of them is found at the end of the Survey of Worcestershire and was foolishly supposed by the compilers of the index volume (pp. 250, 315) to relate to lands held by 'Eddeva' and entered immediately before it. The passage is an independent note, running thus:
In Esch Hund' jacent x. hidæ in Fecheham et iii. hidæ in Holewei et scriptæ sunt in brevi de Hereford.
In Dodintret Hund' jacent xiii. hidæ de Mertelai et v. hidæ de Suchelei quæ hic placitant et geldant, et ad Hereford reddunt firmam suam, et sunt scriptæ in breve regis (i. 178).
All four places are found on fo. 180b, 'Feccheham' and 'Haloede' [sic][243] together (under 'Naisse' Hundred[244]) as paying a joint ferm—'Merlie' (Martley) under 'Dodintret' Hundred and Suchelie (Suckley), now in Herefordshire, as 'in Wirecestrescire' (cf. i. 172).
It is clear then that Domesday here uses 'breve' of a return, not of a writ, and I venture to think the word may refer to the abbreviated entries made in Domesday Book itself as distinct from those in extenso found in the original returns.[245]