Domesday on Harby
The Domesday also known as the Great Survey of England and Wales was completed in 1086 at the request of King William the Conqueror.
DOMESDAY BOOK
It is written in Latin and is the first record of Harby.
When translated this is what it says.
In the Wapentake of Framland Robert of Tosny owns 17 carucates of land at Harby. In the time of King Edward, it was 14 ploughs. Three of these carucates are held directly by Robert with 8 slaves. 13 of the ploughs are leased to 24 freemen, 7 villagers and 3 smallholders. There are meadows measuring five furlongs long and 4 furlongs wide. This land now brings in £5 a year; it used to be worth £4.
Robert of Bucy owns 1 carucate of land at Harby and leases it to Gerard. The land takes one plough to work it. Gerard sub-leases it to 2 freemen and 3 smallholders. Its value is 5 shillings.
The Domesday Book tells us that Harby is spelled both Herdebi and Hertebi. It is in the county of Leicestershire and in the division called the Wapentake of Framland. The land is owned by two French noblemen, Robert of Tosny and Robert of Bucy. There are 18 carucates of land which is about 2,160 acres. Robert of Tosny has 2,040 acres. In King Edward's time, before William the Conqueror took over England, it took 14 plough teams to work this land. A plough team was the plough and eight oxen to pull it. Robert has a central farmstead that he runs himself with eight men. The rest of the land is let out to 34 men. The meadows of the village measure five furlongs by four furlongs. The rent is now five pounds, it used to be four pounds. Robert of Bucy owns 120 acres and lets the land to Girard. Girard then sublets it to five men. There is one plough team working it. It has a rental value of five shillings. The people of Harby are put into four levels of social status, from highest to lowest, freeman, villagers, smallholders and slaves.
Putting all these people together it makes up 47 working men. We can estimate that each working man had a family of a wife and two children. That would make a total population of Harby in 1086 of about 150 men, women and children. There were nearly as many oxen.
King William could expect to get five pounds and five shillings a year from the village.
​
To read more about the Domesday Book CLICK HERE
​
Want to know what a Carucate measurement of land is Click Here