Dome book, or domesday book, iz a word wel understood by English lawyers. Dome book, or dom bec, az it waz formerly spelt, waz the name given to the Saxon code of laws compiled by Alfred. Some other codes of local customs or laws were also denominated dom becs, but theze are all lost. After the conquest, a general survey of all the lands in England, except a few counties, waz made by order of William, and recorded in a volum which iz stil extant, and called domesday. This survey waz begun by five justices assigned for the purpose in each county, in the year 1081 and completed 1086.
Our pious ancestors were not a little frightened at the name of this book, which iz usually pronounced doomsday; supposing it to hav some reference to the final doom, or day of judgement. In order to quiet such apprehensions, lawyers of less credulity undertook to refute the common opinion. Jacob, after Cowel, very gravely asserts, that the termination day in this word does not allude to the general judgement. "The addition of day to this dome book, waz not ment with any allusion to the final day of judgement, az most persons hav conceeved, but waz to strengthen and confirm it, and signifieth the judicial decisiv record, or book of dooming judgement and justice."[67] The same author defines domesmen to be judges, or men appointed to doom.
Cowel, a compiler of considerable authority, says, "day or dey," (for dey iz the true spelling) "does not augment the sense, but only doubles and confirms the same meening. It does not, in this composition, really signify the mesure of time, but the administration of justice; so that domesday iz more emphatically the judicial decisiv record, the book of dooming judgement."[68] According to this author, then, domesday iz a judgement of judgements, for he quotes Dr. Hammond to proov that day, dies, ημερα, in all idioms, signifies judgement. However tru this may be, I beleev our Saxon forefathers could find a better name for a code of laws, than a judgement of judgements.
"Domesday," says Coke, "dies judicii," day of judgement.[69] Such is the influence of sounds upon credulous, superstitious minds.
The truth seems to be this; domesday is a compound of dom, judgement, decree or authority; and dey, a law or rule.[70] Or domes, in the plural, may signify judges. The name of the book then will signify, ether the rules of judging, or deciding, in questions relating to the real property of England; or what is more probable, the rules and determinations of the judges who surveyed the lands in the kingdom.
That dom had the signification here explained iz capable of proof. The homager's oath, in the black book of Hereford, fol. 46, ends thus, "So helpe me God at his holy dome (judgement) and by my trowthe," (troth, that is truth.)[71] This explanation coincides with the meening of the same syllable in other languages, and confirms the hypothesis of the common origin of the languages of Europe, laid down in the Notes to my Dissertations on the English Tung. We see the syllable in the Greek δαμαω, the Latin dominus, (domo) and in the English word tame; az also in doom, deem, king dom.[72] In all theze words we observe one primitiv and several derivativ significations. Its primitiv sense is that of power or authority, az in Greek and Latin. In English, it stands for jurisdiction, a judge, or a sentence. In deem, it denotes the act of the mind in judging, or forming its determinations.
The other syllable dey iz probably the same word az ley, law, with a different prepositiv article; for etymologists tel us, that the radical syllable waz often found in the muther tung ey. Cowel informs us it waz not day, but dey; and another author writes it d'ey. The word daysman, or az it ought to be spelt deysman, stil used both in England and America, is composed of dey and man, and signifies an arbitrator or judge, appointed to reconcile differences. In this country I hav often heerd it applied to our Savior, az mediator between God and man.
The ancient lawyers translate the Saxon dom bec and domesdey by liber judicialis; words which seem not to convey the ful meening of the original. I should translate them, liber judicum, the Judges book; or lex judicum, the Judges law or rule.
The old Saxon word ley, before mentioned, waz, in different dialects, or at different periods, written ley, lah, lage, laga. It iz doubtless from the same root az the Latin lex, lege; and it is remarkable, that the same word anciently signified peeple; and from this are derived lay and laity, the peeple as opposed to the clergy.[73] It iz probable that the primitiv sense of the word, in remote antiquity, waz people; and az the peeple made the laws in general assembly, so their orders or decrees came to be called by the same name. This conjecture iz not groundless, and is no trifling proof of the ancient freedom of our Gothic ancestors. Tacitus says expressly of the Germans, "De minoribus rebus principes consultant; de majoribus omnes." De Mor Germ. 11. The princes deliberate upon small matters, or perhaps decide private controverses of small moment; but laws of general concern are enacted in an assembly of all the peeple.
The origin of Parishes haz puzzled all the lawyers and antiquaries of the English nation. Johnson, after his usual manner, recurs to the Greek, and derives the word from παροικια, accolarum conventus, an assemblage or collection of peeple in a naborhood. Others content themselves with deriving it from the Latin parochia or French paroisse. These etymologies do not satisfy me. It is improbable that our ancestors went to the Greek for names of places or divisions of territory, that existed in England az erly az the Heptarchy; especially az the Greek word before mentioned waz never used in the sense of parish. Parochia cannot be the origin of parish; for it waz not a Roman word; on the other hand, it is merely a Gothic or Saxon word latinized by the erly writers on law; and to derive parish from the French paroisse is trifling; for we might as well derive paroisse from parish, which iz at leest az ancient.