Domesday lists 241 feudal tenants in Dorset (not all of them resident); 163 burgesses and 6,785 peasants tied to the land. Based on these figures, it is estimated that the population of Dorset in the 1080's was in the region of 50,000.
LANDHOLDERS
The Church, principally the monasteries, held about two fifths of the land in the county - as they had done before the Conquest save for the grants to the bishoprics and Norman Abbeys. The Bishop of Sarum, and abbeys of Shaftesbury, Cerne, Milton, Sherborne, Abbotsbury and Glastonbury where the largest holders of Church lands. Others were Cranborne, Horton, Winchester, Caen, six lesser abbeys, three Norman bishops and four priests.
The largest portion of Dorset held by the Norman Barons belonged to Robert de Mortain, half-brother of the Conqueror. Other major landholders were the widow of Hugh Fitzgrip (the sheriff), Roger of Arundel, William of Eu and twenty-five other barons. Nine lesser Normans, 36 thegnes, 10 servants of the King holding by sergeantry, and four boroughs also held lands in the county.
The King himself was the largest single landowner, holding about one sixth of the county, most demesne, some escheated.
Before the Conquest, half the land in the county had belonged to the English Lords (as opposed that held by the King or Church). At the time of Domesday, five sixths of that land was by the Norman barons, knights or clergy and the English aristocracy had all but vanished save for a few small landholders who had not supported King Harold or the subsequent rebellions against the Normans. The peasants (who had been free men in Saxon England), were reduced to the status of villeins tied to their Lord's lands.
THE ECONOMY
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Two hundred and seventy-two Dorset watermills are mentioned in Domesday, although the millers would have only worked in them part-time, when there was milling to be done. |
The occupation of the vast majority of the population, even the townsfolk, was farming. Most of Domesday concerns the land and farming matters, although other occupations are mentioned. Along the Dorset coast, salt-working is mentioned at Purbeck and Lyme Regis; fishing in the vicinity of Lyme Regis and Weymouth.
The livlihoods of most townsfolk was tied up with agriculture and many enumerated in the Domesday Survey as burgesses held houses in towns attached to agricultural manors beyond which they probably held as villeins (some such may be found at Wimborne Minster, even though it was not a proper borough). One occupation of townsfolk regularly mentioned in the Survey is "moneyers" - one in Bridport, two each in Dorchester and Wareham, no less than three in Sherborne.
DORSET TOWNS
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Bridport and Dorchester were the property of the Crown; two thirds of Shaftesbury to the Abbey; about half the houses of Wareham belonged to a Norman Abbey or other feudal lords. |
In the general upheaval during and in the years which followed the Norman Conquest, Dorset's Towns lost a considerable number of houses;
the county town of Dorchester 84, out of 172 (49%); Bridport 20, out of 120 (17%); Shaftesbury 80, out of 257 (31%); and, the port of Wareham, 150 out of 285 (53%).
TAXATION
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The hide was a unit of taxation based on a rough assessment of value, as opposed to a measure. |
An assessment of his realm for taxation was the reason William I ordered the Domesday Survey to be compiled. The princiapl tax raised by the monarch was the "geld". It was levied at between two and six shillings per hide. Apart from the boroughs, Dorset was rated at about 2,600 hides.
The town of Dorchester and Port of Wareham were assessed at ten hides each, Bridport at five and Shaftesbury at twenty. In practice, however, the towns paid one mark (13/4) per year for each ten hides they were rated at, in place of the geld.
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Together with the demesne, Dorset produced seven 'farms' annually as it was liable to support the Royal Household for one week of each year. | |
Dorchester, Bridport and Wareham had also to pay, each year, the "One-Day Farm" - the £100 or so in cash which was the cost of maintaining the Royal Household for a day as it moved about the country.
