Domesday Day Book for Cliffe Kent - Cliffe History

Domesday Book, our earliest public record, is a rare and   remarkable survey which details landholding and resources in   late eleventh-century England. No other Western European   state produced anything even broadly comparable in its scope   until several centuries later. In its sophistication and in   the comprehensiveness of its information*, Domesday Book   remained unequalled until the nineteenth century. Moreover,   the wealth of information that it contains illuminates one   of the most crucial times in our history: the conquest and   settlement of England by William I and his Norman and   northern French followers.

Nevertheless, it could not have been made without the   comparatively advanced administrative system that William   inherited from his Anglo-Saxon predecessors. By the year   1000 AD most of England was already divided into the network   of shires that was to persist with relatively little   alteration until the reorganization of the county boundaries   in 1974.

During the last years of his reign William’s power was   threatened from a number of quarters. Hie North was   chronically rebellious, and in 1085, King Canute of Denmark   and King Olaf of Norway gathered a great fleet of ships and   made preparations for an invasion.

The invasion did not materialize, but such a large and   costly exercise may have indicated to the Conqueror the need   to reassess Danegeld in order to maximize the revenue, and   the value of knowing, in as much detail as possible,   precisely what his subjects possessed in England. A   reassessment of geld was therefore set in motion and took   place at about the same time as the Domesday survey (it only   survives for the south-western counties), but this was not,   as many Victorian historians believed, the principal object   of the exercise. Domesday is far more than just a fiscal   record. It is a detailed statement of lands held by the king   and by his tenants and of the resources which went with   those lands.

* Contary to general belief the Domesday survey did not   cover everything in the kingdom. Quite often, for various   reasons, churches were not always included e.g. in Kent   there were over 400 churches but less than half were   recorded in the Domesday Book.

One of the most important near-contemporary accounts of the making of the Domesday survey is that of the Anglo-Saxon chronicler. He tells us that at his 1085 Christmas court at   Gloucester William had much thought and very deep discussion   about this country—how it was occupied or with what sorts of   people.

This passage hints at the dismay and apprehension later expressed in the naming of the survey as Domesday, because of the association with the Day of Judgement, that terrible   verdict against which there was no appeal.

Another important description of the survey was written   within a few years of its completion by Robert, Bishop of   Hereford, one of the ecclesiastics whom William had brought   to England. The king’s men, he wrote,

Here we are given invaluable clues about when and how the   inquiries were undertaken and, in recent years, most   historians have come to agree on the general outlines of   this vast operation. There were already earlier lists of   lands and taxes in existence, some dating from the   Anglo-Saxon period, others from after 1066, which were kept   both in the principal royal city of Winchester and locally   in the shires. They too were drawn upon for the survey. All   of England, apart from the northern counties, which were not   yet firmly under Norman control, was divided into seven   circuits. The final circuit to be completed was that the   Eastern, which consisted of Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, some   of the most populous counties of England. This final circuit   was never included in the Great Domesday Book but as a   supplement known as Little Domesday Book.

All the original entries in the Domesday Book were   written in 11th century clerical Latin, so stylised and  abbreviated that it is beyond the scope of a graduate in   Latin, without special training.

During the Victorian period many different translations  were made which varied greatly in reliability which led to   great confusion to students of history.

It was not until 1968, under the leadership of Dr. John   Morris, that an accepted translation was agreed. The first  county volumes appeared in print in 1975.

The Cliffe  entries are shown below, both as the whole page and  individual entries.

In common with other counties a number of Domesday-like   texts survive for Kent which appear to bear some relation to   Domesday itself. The most notable are the Domesday   Monachorum of Christ Church, Canterbury, a Domesday-like   account of some ecclesiastical estates, with a different order and different information to Domesday; and an eleventh-century Inquisition of St Augustine's, Canterbury, commonly referred to as the Excerpta, which likewise   contains information presented in the fashion of Domesday and refers to the Survey in its own heading. Both texts omit much of the manorial detail to be found in Domesday .

The Domesday Monachorum is in reality a group of four   texts, only one of which is claimed as a Domesday satellite.   The manuscript survives in a hand of c.1100 but is itself a   copy of an earlier document, which its editor, David   Douglas, argues was compiled in 1087 from the original   returns of the Domesday Survey. It has more recently been   argued (by Hoyt, 'Pre-Domesday Kentish Assessment List'),   that part at least of another text is an assessment list   independent of and earlier than the Domesday Survey itself.

The Excerpta survives only in an emended   thirteenth-century copy but is derived from an independent   compilation made in or before 1087. This compilation is   likewise argued to have been based on the information of the   original returns. The thirteenth-century heading of the   document refers both to the 'King's Domesday' and to an   'account of the sulungs of the County of Kent', perhaps an   assessment list of the kind which appears as part of the Domesday Monachorum.

In recent years the significance of these texts and of   the Kent folios in general has assumed a great importance in   the debate dealing with the making of Domesday Book. In   outline the debate revolves around the question as to   whether such texts as the Excerpta and Domesday Monachorum   are to be seen as products of the Domesday Survey itself,   which is the conclusion of the editors of both texts, or   else as part of the framework of Anglo-Norman governance to   which the Domesday Survey was the immediate heir. An account   of the major theories is to be found inGalbraith, Making of   Domesday Book, pp. 146-155; Galbraith, Domesday Book: Its   Place in Administrative History; Harvey, 'Domesday Book and   its Predecessors'; Harvey, 'Domesday Book and Anglo-Norman   Governance'.

Ralph fitz Turold holds OAKLEIGH of the bishop. It is   assessed at 1 sulung. There is land for half a plough, and   there are besides 30 acres of land. In demesne is 1 plough;   and 6 villans have half a plough. There are 12 acres of   meadow. TRE, and afterwards, it was worth 40s ; now 4l.   Hunæf held it of Earl Harold.

Ansgot of Rochester holds HENHURST. It is assessed at half a sulung. There is land for 1 plough. In demesne is   1 plough, and 2 villans with 4 slaves. TRE it was worth 20s   ; when received, 30s ; now 40s. Godwine held it of Earl  Godwine.

King Edward 1003-1066. Also known, some two hundred years later, as Edward the Confessor due to his deep piety. He was also the son-in-law to Earl Godwin of Wessex and brother-in-law to Harold; the last Saxon king of England.

Earl Leofwine was the younger brother of King Harold II and the fifth son of Earl Godwin. He was Earl of Kent, Essex, Middlesex, Hertford, Surrey and probably Buckinghamshire. He died on the 14th October, 1066 during the battle of Santlache Ridge together with his brothers Harold and Gyrth.

As for the others: those holding lands after the conquest, it would probably take far too long but a brief listing of their holdings is shown below.