The questions
The Ely Inquest lists the questions asked by the commissioners. 'They inquired:
- What the manor was called
- Who held it at the time of King Edward
- Who holds it now
- How many hides there are (measurement of land for taxation purposes, between 60 and 120 acres)
- How many ploughs held by the lord and how many belonging to the peasants
- How many villeins (the wealthiest of the unfree peasants who had to pay his lord labour service and rent)
- How many cottars (an unfree peasant with a holding of land up to 5 acres)
- How many slaves (unfree man or woman)
- How many freemen
- How many sokemen (equivalent to a freeman but owing dues to his lord for his holding)
- How much woodland
- How much meadow
- How much pasture
- How many mills
- How many fisheries
- How much had been added to or taken away from the estate
- What it used to be worth altogether
- What it is worth now
All this was to be recorded three times - as it was in the time of King Edward [before 1066], what it was when King William gave it and as it is now. And it was also to be noted whether more [tax revenue] could be taken than is being taken now.' It also gives the names of some of the jurors showing the Norman and English mix.
Compiled at amazing speed for an age without computers or rapid means of communication, and where most of the population could neither read nor write, the returns were then summarized and re-shaped. The scribes followed a set pattern in their organisation of the data. Each county section began with an entry describing all the boroughs, followed by a list of landholders and then a detailed description of their manors, beginning with those held by the king himself and followed by those of the tenants-in-chief, itemised in rank order. Red ink was used for key headings.
Published: 2001-05-01
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