Domesday Book
Domesday Book is a manuscript record of the great survey, completed in 1086 on orders of William the Conqueror, of much of England and parts of Wales: "While spending the Christmas time of 1085 in Gloucester, William had deep speech with his counsellors and sent men all over England to each shire to find out what or how much each landholder had in land and livestock, and what it was worth"
. In Latin, the survey's key purpose was to determine what taxes had been owing under Edward the Confessor. The assessors' reckoning of a man's holdings and their value, as given in the Book, was dispositive and without appeal, and thus the name
Domesday Book came into use in the 12th century. As Richard FitzNigel wrote in the
Dialogus de Scaccario around 1179: for as the sentence of that strict and terrible last account cannot be evaded by any skilful subterfuge, so when this book is appealed to... its sentence cannot be quashed or set aside with impunity. That is why we have called the book 'the Book of Judgement' ... because its decisions, like those of the Last Judgement, are unalterable. The manuscript is held at The National Archives, London.