Statistics Notes for Oxfordshire 
(version 1b)

Previous studies: Despite its age, the totals and annotation in Sir Henry Ellis, A General Introduction to Domesday Book, vol. 2, pp. 488-93, still have some value. Maitland, Domesday Book and Beyond, pp. 400-403, and Darby, Domesday England, pp. 336-71, supply totals and an invaluable analysis of problems with the statistics for the Domesday county; and Jope and Terrett, 'Oxfordshire', in Domesday Geography of South-East England, edited by H.C. Darby and Eila M.J. Campbell, pp. 186-238, analyse the data and its problems for the modern county; no detailed breakdowns are available. A sophisticated analysis of the value and limitations of the Domesday statistics for the comparative study of the conditions of 1066 and 1086 is provided by R.W. Finn, The Norman Conquest and its effects on the economy, 1066-1086; but since his totals exclude certain figures they have not been included in the spreadsheet below. Finally, problems in interpreting the statistics for Domesday valuations, Domesday waste, and landed wealth are examined respectively in Palmer, 'The Conqueror's footprints in Domesday Book', in The medieval military revolution, edited by Andrew C. Ayton and J.L. Price (1995), pp. 23-44; 'War and Domesday waste', in Armies, chivalry and warfare in medieval Britain and France, edited by Matthew Strickland (1998), pp. 256-75; and 'The wealth of the secular aristocracy in 1086', Anglo-Norman Studies, vol. 22 (2000), pp. 279-91.

Circuits: Oxfordshire is considered to have been in circuit 4, along with Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire. The characteristics of the text and formulae which define the circuit are analysed by Carl Stephenson, 'Notes on the composition and interpretation of Domesday Book', Speculum, vol. 22 (1947), pages 1-15.

County: the statistics are those contained in the folios for the Domesday county which may explain some discrepancies between our county totals and those of Darby whose figures are sometimes adjusted to take account of vills divided by the county boundary or entries misplaced by the Domesday scribe: see the relevant volume of the Domesday Geographies.

Duplicates: Duplicates, or possible duplicates, often with differences of detail, are:
•	6,17	2 1/2 hides of Baldon possibly duplicated in 20 1/2 hides in 6,1b
•	7,32	entry duplicated in 7,37.
•	11,2	1 hide duplicated in 24,7.
Duplicates which are not simply claims are included in our totals but coded to allow them to be treated separately.

Boroughs: One borough is recorded: Oxford (civitas), described in a separate Boroughs section and containing burgesses and urban sites. Data for the boroughs is recorded in the Boroughs database but the standard statistical data is also included in the DomesdayStatistics database.

Geld: In Oxfordshire, the geld units are given in hides, virgates, and fiscal acres. Our statistics are recorded as decimals and assume that 1 hide = 4 virgates = 120 acres; these are fiscal units, of course, not measurements of area. Fief 6 for the bishop of Lincoln is particularly problematic as several holdings are split between two entries with assessment figures for which the details do not add up to the stated totals. Hides described as inland e.g. 6,4 have been interpreted as included within the given hidage figure and entered under lord's geld. Significant variations in formulae have been coded to allow them to be treated separately.

Ploughlands: The formulae normally employed in Oxfordshire is Terra x carucis (land for x ploughs) but 4 entries record T.R.E. ploughs and another that ploughs 'were there'. The ploughland is theoretically the amount of arable land which could be worked by a ploughteam of eight oxen in the course of the agricultural year. In some counties theory appears to match reality; but in others the ploughlands are clearly artificial figures whose meaning is unclear. There are no blanks in the manuscript where ploughlands are expected but 16 entries have no recorded ploughlands. In some of these cases it may be necessary to substitute ploughteams for the missing ploughlands for purposes of analysis. We have not done so; but the coding allows the relevant entries to be selected for separate treatment. Other significant variations in formulae are coded to allow separate treatment.

Ploughteams: In Oxfordshire, as in other counties in circuit 4, ploughteams are normally recorded separately for the demesne and for the villagers. In many instances, however, the formulae is ambiguous, simply stating that the ploughteams are 'there', without specifying ownership. We have interpreted these cases conservatively, allocating them to the demesne or to the villagers only where the evidence is reasonably clear; the total ploughteams for an entry may therefore be greater than the sum of the lords' and men’s teams, enabling all such cases to be identified.

Population: The rural population of Oxfordshire is largely made up of the three groups of villagers, smallholders and slaves. The groups which formed the rest of the manorial population were 26 fee men, 1 priest, 17 boors, 4 fishermen, 8 Frenchmen, 24 'men', 6 men-at-arms and 1 widow and 6 'others'.

Woodland: is recorded mainly in terms of leagues and furlongs. Figures are recorded as text to accommodate non-numerical data but can easily converted to numerals where appropriate; the coding of the units employed allow them to be treated separately.

Meadow: is normally recorded in terms of acres. Figures are treated as for woodland.

Pasture: is normally recorded in terms of either leagues and furlongs or acres. Figures are treated as for woodland.

Values: Values are recorded in modern decimal currency. Until 1972, the English pound contained 20 shillings, each of 12 pence, the units used for most Domesday values, represented by the abbreviations £.s.d for the Latin librae, solidi and denarii. In circuit 4, the bulk of the valuations are given for two dates, and in 85% of these cases the earlier date is simply 'was', which could be 1066 or a date intermediate between 1066 and 1086. Where the earlier date is given precisely, it is almost always 1066. In the whole circuit there are only a dozen cases where the earlier date is 'when acquired', traditionally circa 1070. We have therefore assigned 'was' values to 1066 in four of the five counties of circuit four, Leicestershire being treated as a special case. The Oxfordshire data is fairly clear-cut. There are no 'when acquired' valuations where only two dates are given but more than 60 cases where 1066 is specified in those circumstances. To facilitate comparisons between pre- and post-Conquest landholding, we have created in addition to the two or three valuations a composite field- Value66/QR/86 - which includes intermediate (or failing those 1086) valuations where there is no data for 1066. All valuations - including those in Value66/QR/86 - have been coded to allow significant variations in the formulae to be treated separately.

Waste: There were substantial numbers of derelict houses in the borough (B4-5;7-10) and seven recorded instances of waste in Oxfordshire, all referring to 1086.

Oxfordshire statistics

Source	Geld	Ploughlands	Ploughs	Villagers	Smallholders	Slaves	MiscPop	Mills	Churches	Value86	
Maitland/Ellis*	2412	2639	2467	3545	1889	963	-	-	-	-	
VCH	2509	2649	2641	3682	1933	1007	-	-	-	-	
Darby	2568	2857	2584	3671	1948	1002	65	203	6	2878	
Hull	2435	2551	2458	3549	1883	963	66	195	2	2956	
* Population figures from Ellis. All figures are rounded. Darby's totals are probably adjusted for vills in other counties, and vice-versa.

Geld	Errors and ambiguities in shared statistics 6,1a,1b,1c;9 and 6,2; 10 include possible discrepancies of 10 hides in 6,10; 0.75 in 6,11 and 3.5 in 6,12, but these do not account for the remaining shortfall. There is a hide of inland of ambiguous nature in 9,7 which we have counted as a carucate but may have been included in the hidage by Darby.
Ploughlands	163 ploughs are recorded for entries without ploughland data which Darby may have added to his total; he may have added another 25 carucates.
Ploughs	It is possible that Darby has included 10 carucates given in 6,4 and a further 10 given in 6,5 as actual lordship ploughs. There are no obvious ambiguities in the plough statistics beyond this.
Villagers	The vills in other counties bring the figure for villagers close.
Smallholders	The vills in other counties bring the figure for smallholders to within 1.
Slaves	If Leicestershire slaves recorded in other counties are included, our total would also be 1002.
MiscPop	Includes 17 boors, 8 Frenchmen, 6 men-at-arms, 3 fishermen, 23 men, 6 'others' and 1 widow in 59,4 whom Darby has not counted according to his conventions.
Mills	Unmatched fractions might add 2 to the arithmetical total, mills recorded in other counties another 4.
Churches	Darby has included St. Frideswide's St Mary's and St. Peter's in his count of churches: see Domesday Geography of South-East England, p. 228.
Value 1086	Including borough payments, £3015. In 59,21 the Domesday scribe has written £7 for the 1086 value instead of 7s in error which Darby may not have corrected. The value of the misplaced counties comes to £88 10s, but we have been unable to account for the remaining discrepancy.

Darby's totals for free men (26), priests (1) and burgesses (1) match ours, as do those of Ellis.