Book of Winchester

Latin, Liber de Wintonia.

Domesday Book does not name itself, nor do contemporary sources. In an addition made to the text for Yorkshire - probably between 1114 and 1119, though possibly not until the following decade - a scribe wrote: 'This is the holding of Robert of Brus which was given after the Book of Winchester was written'. This is the earliest certain name for what became known as Domesday Book.

The name Domesday was first mentioned in about 1179, though it is evident that by that date it was well-established. No less a person than the Treasurer of England recorded then that 'This book is called by the native English Domesday, that is Day of Judgement' (Dialogus de scaccario, page 64). Like the Last Judgement, the treasurer explained, the decisions of Domesday Book were unalterable.

For more information on the Bruce fief, compare Gillian Fellows-Jensen, 'The Domesday Book account of the Bruce fief', English Place-Name Society Journal, vol. 2 (1969-70), pages 8-17, who argued for a date in the 1120s, and Peter King, 'The return of the fee of Robert de Brus in Domesday', Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, vol. 60 (1988), pages 25-29, who makes a case for a date between 1114 and 1119.