we find the lands classed, as required, under each tenant's name, and the abstract was copied into the two volumes before noticed, which are now extant amongst the records of the Exchequer anciently in the Tally Office,' and are now deposited in the Chapter House of Westminster Abbey. They are in excellent preservation, having been treated with the utmost tenderness and care; for, amongst other precautions, it is forbidden to touch the writing, or to advance your finger beyond the margin.. The returns of live stock are omitted in the larger Domesday: probably the particulars of this transitory property were not considered as worthy of preservation. We We are unable to answer the question why they are recorded in Essex, Norfolk, aud Suffolk, unless by supposing that the Lesser Domesday is the only remaining volume of the first edition, and that the others were recopied and condensed, perhaps under Rufus, in the volume which has been usually considered as a contemporaneous record.

It is not unusual to describe Domesday as a badge of Norman tyranny. That the survey was prompted by the stern and rigid principles of government adopted by the Conqueror, cannot be denied; but instead of being calculated to enlarge his authority, it was in truth an admission of the restriction of his power. Had he considered himself as an absolute monarch, governing by right of conquest, there would have been little necessity to inquire into the prerogatives of Edward the Confessor. New lords had become seised of the halls of the Saxon Thanes; and few indeed of the English aristocracy enjoyed any share of wealth or honour. Still the law was unshaken and unchanged. The record which testified the extent of the rights of the sovereign was an equal protection to the humble Socman, whose privileges were enumerated with equal fidelity-and who, if his franchises were invaded, was thereby enabled to claim his ploughland with as much certainty as the king could assert his wide-spreading prerogative. The precedent, so given, was soon universally adopted: every prelate and every baron imitated the proceedings of the royal courts, as closely as could be effected by the constitution of the seignorial tribunal; the value of the rents of the manor, and the services of the bondmen, were investigated by proceedings modelled after the prototype of Winchester; and every extent of lands, tenements, or hereditaments, that is to say, an inquiry into their nature and value, effected by means of a jury empannelled before the escheator, the sheriff, or any other person delegated by the crown, derives its origin from the proceedings of the Exchequer of the Conqueror.

One of the principal objects of the Domesday survey, was to ascertain the number of hydes which were to be charged with the Danegeld.

Danegeld. This land-tax was assessed at the rate of six shillings per hyde, amounting, on the average, to one hundred acres ; and until the land was brought under the plough it does not appear to have been liable to the payment. The increase of cultivation may, therefore, have been one of the causes which induced the ambitious Flambard to advise another survey, which was considered as one of the greatest grievances of the tyranny of the Red King. Other general surveys, in the nature of Domesday, were made from time to time. Henry I. made similar inquiries, and a most curious description of Winchester is extant, resulting from the inquest of the eight score and six burgesses impannelled before the commissioners, in which we have the particulars of every house in the city which paid Landgable' or ground rent to the king in the days of Edward the Confessor, and at the time when the survey was made. It is uncertain to what period we are to refer the fragments of another general survey hitherto unnoticed, and affording some important particulars relating to tenure, which are omitted in Domesday. For instance, from the description of the boroughs of Winchcombe and Goucester we ascertain that the burgesses had a certain estate by inheritance in their burgages, and which was not divested by the Conquest.*

Under Edward I. we may continue the series of territorial surveys by Testa de Neville,' and by the Hundred rolls, which, like the older Domesday, equally resulted from the verdicts of the jury. The first, sometimes known by the name of the Liber Feudorum,' contains an abstract, made, as it is conjectured, either by Ralph Neville, an accountant of the exchequer in the reign of Henry III., or by Johannes de Neville, a justice itinerant of the same period, from records relating to scutages and aids, to which additions were made by other diligent compilers; and it is extremely valuable, as giving a condensed and accurate view of the feudality of the thirteenth century, though, as it was intended merely as a book of general evidence, for the use of the contemporaries of the compilers, many notices, which would have been most instructive to after-times, were necessarily omitted. The more ampleRotuli Hundredorum' were formed by the inquests taken pursuant to the general commissions, (2 Edward I.) by which certain justices were appointed to inquire not only into the value and state of the demesne lands of the crown, and the knights' fees held in capite, but also into the illegal exercise of territorial

'In Wincelcumbe, in dominio Regis Edwardi erant Ix Burgenses reddentes xli sol. de gablo per annum. De hiis sunt lii in hereditate suâ manentes.'

Gloucestr', Tempore Regis Edwardi erant in civitate ccc Burgenses in dominio, reddentes xviii li. et x sol. de gablo per annum. De hiis sunt c tres minus residentes in propriâ hereditate, et c tres minus manentes in emptis, mansionibus, Francigenæ et Anglici.'

franchises.

franchises. The rolls which were compiled for the use of the exchequer, are extant for most of the counties of England; and from the very minute view which they afford of the state of the landed population, they constitute a species of resting point between Anglo-Norman feudality and that order which was established when Littleton expounded the English law. They exhibit the Churl, the Socman, and the Baron, in that memorable era when the causes were beginning to operate which converted their grandchildren into the labourer, the farmer, and the gentleman, and destroyed the ancient government and policy of the Realm.*

Equally important is the volume which may be considered as the Domesday of North Wales. About the 26th Edward III., John Delves, acting as Lieutenant of the Earl of Arundel, made his circuit throughout the country, for the purpose of ascertaining not only the value of the royal demesnes, but also the local tenures, customs, and powers. Adopting the ancient course, he summoned the landholders, as well free as bond, and their declaration upon oath was examined or verified by the juries empannelled in each 'commot,' being substantially the same process as was em ployed by the Conqueror. These reports were completed with so much accuracy, that every parcel of land can still be identified; yet so complete has been the introduction of English law, in the Principality, that the best informed of the Cymric antiquaries are unable to give a satisfactory interpretation of the tenures specified in the extent, and of which the knowledge is lost in the mist of antiquity.†

The inquisitiones post mortem bear the same relation to each distinct barony and estate, which Domesday does to the kingdom in general. Upon the death of a Tenant in capite his land was seized by the crown; a jury was then empannelled before the Escheator, and the jurymen were charged upon their oaths to declare the particulars and value of the property, and the name and age of the next heir. This proceeding was returned to the

*The Testa de Neville and the Rotuli Hundredorum are amongst the volumes published by the Record Commission. The 'Valor Ecclesiasticus' is a kind of Domesday of church property, taken pursuant to commissions issued 28 Henry VIII., for the purpose of ascertaining the whole and true value of all the possessions,' as well spiritual as temporal, belonging to any manor of dignity, monastery, priory, &c. in England, Wales, Calais, and the Marches. Six volumes of these very valuable records have been edited by Mr. Caley, accompanied by minute and exact ecclesiastical maps, which have been executed under the inspection of Mr. Rickman.

A

The original extents, which were deposited in the exchequer at Caernarvon, have been long since dispersed and destroyed. Copies of those relating to Anglesey, Caernarvon, and Denbigh, made about the reign of Henry VII., are extant in two volumes, in the Harleian collection, which appear to have belonged to the court of wards. translation of the Extent of Anglesey, by the late Mr. Parry, has been published, with transactions of the Cymmrodorion. It is highly desirable, however, that the original should be printed.

Chancery,

Chancery, and a duplicate was also transmitted to the Exchequer: the heir, if an adult, then appeared in court, and upon performance of homage to the King, and payment of his reasonable relief, the estate was restored to him. If, on the contrary, the Heir was a minor, he and his land remained in wardship until he could sue out his writ de ætate probanda, under which process witnesses were examined; and their depositions being returned into Chancery, he was released from wardship, but during which bondage, however, a yoke of another description had been usually imposed upon him, which was not to be thrown off with equal facility. The sale of the marriage of an Heir, whether male or female, was a most valuable perquisite, and the price brought by the 'gentile Bachelor,' or the blooming Damsel, was regulated by the bargains of the contracting parties, that is to say, the King or his grantee, who sold the bride or bridegroom, and by the parent who bought the match for the benefit of his offspring. The records relating to these parts of the crown property (and even as late as the reign of James I. the law and the abuse continued in full vigour) afford a singular view of the state of society, and form a whimsical contrast to our modern ideas. Instead of finding a Serjeant-at-arms despatched to punish a clandestine marriage, we discover the same worthy officer employed for the purpose of apprehending a ward who had been guilty of a contempt of court by refusing to accept the hand of the lady who had been duly tendered to him by the Attorney-General before the Master of the Rolls. In the reign of Henry II. the crown wards were regularly catalogued and inventoried, like the slaves of a plantation. According to the Assizes of Jerusalem, the sage and venerable matron who was so fortunate as to attain the unmolested age of threescore, might refuse a husband without incurring the penalties consequent upon a contempt of the king's authority. But even at that venerable age, when she was allowed to retain her widow's weeds, she was still put down in the English record with all particulars, so that the opportunity, whether more or less remote, of disposing of her, might not be lost to the Treasury. Magna Charta mitigated this domestic tyranny, but still the evil remained; and the knight might perhaps envy the tenure which enabled the free Socman to chuse his mate, without fear of being exchequered for his disobedience in following the impulse of his own heart.†

The

Calendars of these inquisitions, from the reign of Henry III. to Henry IV. have been published by the Record Commission.

+ The roll quoted in the text bears the following title:

Rotulus de Dominabus, Pueris et Puellis in Comitatibus Midlesex' Essex' Hertfordscir' Bedefordscir' Bokinghamscir,' Norff' Suff' Cantebrigg Hunt' Notingehamscir

Roteland'

The records of the Legislature, which may be classed under the general heads of Statute rolls-Parliament rolls—Writs of summons and election-and Petitions, offer more chasms than any other public documents. Anterior to the reign of Edward I., our knowledge of parliamentary proceedings is derived either from the unsatisfactory narratives of the Monkish Chroniclers, or from the incidental entries upon the Close and Patent rolls; the Parliamentary rolls, properly so called, which are in the nature of journals of Parliament, do not offer any regular series until the reign of Edward III. There is great reason to suppose that the loss of our earlier constitutional records is not entirely the effect of accident, and that intentional spoliation has aided the ravages of time. When the Lords in opposition debated the resolutions which were to limit the royal authority of Richard II., they moved for the production of the statute by which Edward II. had been deposed, and upon consideration of this revolutionary document, the ordinances and commissions which transferred the chief prerogatives of the Crown to a Council, were established and founded. All records relating to the deposition of Edward of Caernarvon❜ have entirely disappeared; and when it is recollected that the cancellation and destruction of rolls and records touching the state and government' formed a prominent charge in the impeachment of Richard II., it seems probable, that during his short and transient interval of property, he destroyed these dangerous precedents.

+

During the reign of Richard II., the rolls of Parliament were not deposited, as afterwards, amongst the rolls of Chancery, in the Tower: they probably remained in the Treasury of the exchequer, in which depository the only existing rolls of the reign of Edward I. are now to be found. Nor were they, like the other records, accessible to the subject, and open to inspection. This fact is proved by the following transaction. There is now existing in the Tower an ancient book, not a record, but a

Roteland' et Lincolnescir' factus et retornatus Anno tricesimo Regis Henrici (secundi.)'

The following particulars of a Norfolk 'Bachelor' and a Norfolk widow, will exemplify the character of this document, of which, as yet, we have been able to obtain only an imperfect transcript.

Hæres Alberti de Grelley est in custodiâ Domini Regis, et nunc est cum Gilberto Bassett avunculo suo, et est xi annorum. Villa de Tunstede quæ fuit prædicti Alberti est in custodiâ Nigelli fil' Alexandri et Roberti de Burrun. Dictus Albertus

habuit unum filium et tres filias: terra sua in Tunstede valet xxx lib.'

Agnes de Muntchenesey (quæ fuit filia Pagani fil' Johannis) est in donatione Domini Regis et est lx annorum. Habet tres filios: primogenitus vocatur Radulphus, et secundo Willielmus, qui ambo sunt milites: tertius vocatur Hubertus, et est clericus. Ipsa habet duas filias quarum una est nupta Stephano de Glanville, et altera Willielmo Pagnel. Ipsa habet in Holkham undecim libratas terræ.'

private