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Title:
Electronic Edition of Domesday Book: Translation, Databases and Scholarly Commentary, 1086

Subject Categories:
Administrative history - History
Economic history - History
Local history - History
Population history - History
Population studies - Population, vital statistics and censuses

Depositor(s):
Palmer, J., University of Hull. Department of History

Principal Investigator(s):
Palmer, J., University of Hull. Department of History
Thorn, F., University of Hull. Department of History
Thorn, C., University of Hull. Department of History
Hodgson, N., University of Hull. Department of History

Sponsor(s):
Arts and Humanities Research Council

Grant Number:
AN10271/APN18465

Abstract:
The text of Domesday Book is notoriously ambiguous, its array of social and economic statistics hitherto inaccessible, and the majority of individuals and many places unidentified. This electronic edition aims to make Domesday Book both more accessible and more intelligible by presenting its contents in a variety of forms: a translation, databases of names, places and statistics, and a detailed scholarly commentary on all matters of interest or obscurity in the text. All forms of the data are cross-referenced, and all can be used with standard applications.
The translation of Great Domesday was transcribed from the Phillimore edition (see data sources for this project) into an electronic format by typists working on a government employment scheme during the early 1980s, then enhanced by the addition of extensive coding under an ESRC-funded research project later in the decade. The comparable transcription and coding of Little Domesday was undertaken by Dr Natasha Hodgson for this project, while the Phillimore notes were scanned, edited, enlarged and enhanced by Dr and Mrs Thorn, also for this project. The databases of names and places were transcribed into electronic format from the original printed Phillimore indexes, then published as national indexes by Phillimore (1992). The statistics database is original to this project, though compiled over a long period.


Main Topics:
Domesday Book (1086) contains the most comprehensive array of social and economic data for the pre-industrial world from anywhere in Europe, possibly from the planet. It is a major source for the disciplines of archaeology, geography, genealogy, law, linguistics, onomastics, palaeography, philology, prosopography, and topography; for several of these disciplines, it is the major source. The history of majority of towns and villages begins with Domesday Book, which includes a vast amount of data on names, places, individuals, taxation, land use, population groups, estate values, legal matters, and a wide variety of economic and agricultural resources: mills, meadow, woodland, pasture, salt-pans, fisheries, etc. Only a minute amount of such data has survived from the first six centuries of English history and little became available for another two centuries, and even then never as a comprehensive national survey.

Coverage:
Time Period Covered: 1066-1086
Dates of Fieldwork: 1994-2007
date file created
Country: England
Geography: Bedfordshire; Berkshire; Buckinghamshire; Cambridgeshire; Cheshire; Cornwall; Derbyshire; Devon; Dorset; Essex; Gloucestershire; Hampshire; Herefordshire; Hertfordshire; Huntingdonshire; Kent; Leicestershire; Lincolnshire; Middlesex; Norfolk; Northamptonshire; Nottinghamshire; Oxfordshire; Rutland; Shropshire; Somerset; Staffordshire; Suffolk; Surrey; Sussex; Warwickshire; Wiltshire; Worcestershire; Yorkshire
Spatial Units: No spatial unit
Observation Units: Individuals; Families/households; Administrative units (geographical/political)
Kind of Data: Textual data; Numeric data; Alpha/numeric data

Universe Sampled:
Location of Units of Observation:Subnational
Population:Social and economic statistics for the years 1066 - 1086 based on the text of the Domesday Book for England from Yorkshire southwards

Methodology:
Time Dimensions: Cross-sectional (one-time) study
Sampling Procedures: No sampling (total universe)
Method of Data Collection: Transcription of existing materials; Compilation or synthesis of existing material
Weighting: No weighting used
Data Sources:
Morris, J. (1975-92) Domesday Book, Chichester: Phillimore.
Palmer, J., Palmer, M. and Slater, G. (2000) Domesday Explorer [CD-ROM], Stroud: Phillimore.

Language(s) of Written Materials:
Study Description: English
Study Documentation: English

Access:
Access Conditions: The depositor has specified that registration is required and standard conditions of use apply. The depositor may be informed about usage. See terms and conditions for further information.
Availability: History Data Service, UK Data Archive
Contact: Help desk: hds@essex.ac.uk
Please Note: For further information about the project and Domesday Book please refer to the project web site.

Date of Release:
First Edition: 25 September 2007

Copyright:
Copyright: Phillimore and Company Ltd for the printed volumes on which the electronic edition is based; the University of Hull for the data created by the AHRC publicly funded electronic edition project.

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