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To

The Hide Examined

Trans. Devon. Assoc. vol. XXXVI, (1904), pp. 380-389.

by

Sir John B. Phear.

Prepared by Michael Steer

The paper was read at the Association’s July 1904 Teignmouth meeting. One of its early major projects was to investigate some of the important ‘unknowns’ that would aid in an eventual translation and publication by the Association of the Exeter (Exon) Domesday. To this end they initiated a working committee in 1877 that produced an interim report in 1880. A large number of interesting textual analysis papers and critiques were produced during the project development process, of which this paper is one. The working group’s research question in this instance was “What did the fiscal authorities of William the Conqueror's time understand by the term "a hide of land”?  The hide, so far as can be ascertained from its use, might be generally described as “the unit of size, in terms of which the relative magnitudes or strengths of the manorial communities were reckoned and compared with one another, by those who compiled Domesday, to be employed to effect the equitable distribution among them of certain pecuniary and other burdens or duties to which they (the different manorial communities) were liable in common”. What precisely was the scope or meaning of the word when it was used in the Exon Domesday, or suggested for this purpose is still not known, though it had at that time been the subject of much learned discussion and investigation. The paper, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.