customs

Latin, consuetudo.

The customs of particular counties and boroughs were normally accorded separate sections in Domesday Book, as were Archenfield and the Welsh commotes where customary Welsh law held sway. Some of these sections were specifically labelled Customs. The term was also used as a shorthand for any customary payment or obligation.

The printed Phillimore text contains useful notes on the sections devoted to county and borough customs; for customary dues in general, see Paul Vinogradoff, English society in the eleventh century: essays in English medieval history (1908); N. Neilson, Customary rents (1910); and P.D.A. Harvey, 'Rectitudines singularum personarum and gerefa', English Historical Review, vol. 108 (1993), pages 1-22.