In the winter of 1085, William the Conqueror commissioned a great survey to discover the resources and taxable values of all the boroughs and manors in England. If he was going to do a thorough job of taxation, he needed to know what there was to be taxed, and who owned it. As King, he knew that to collect what he figured was owed him, he had to have a record. That record survives today in the form of the Domesday Book.
Acclaimed as the greatest British document of all time, the Domesday book has now been digitized, indexed, and even translated. It is available at the British National Archives Website. See: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ Searches may be done by place, people and folio.
