This news headline on the front page of the Wikipedia caught my attention: “An English translation of the Domesday Book, the 920-year-old census record of England under William the Conqueror, is presented online.”

As far as I’m concerned, any book from the 11th century anno domini that makes it online in a digital format is worthy of giving a
once-over. So, I followed the link to this baby and found some very interesting and comical names contained within William’s census. In the section titled Essex Holders of Land, a subsection of the Little Domesday Book, some fantastic names of persons appear. The list starts out with the King himself, William King of the English. That’s simple and straightforward enough. Skipping second, listed third is the Bishop of London. Again, nothing really comical here, but this is when things start to get exciting. Following the Bishop is a guy that goes by the name of The Fief of the Same Bishop. I assume he was under the fiefdom of the Bishop and his name’s of no real import. Poor guy. Further down the list we find my personal favorites among the landholders:

• Walter the Cook
• Goscelin the Lorimer (I had to look up what a lorimer is…he makes saddles)
• Reginald the Crossbowman (I reckon you need to be able to work magic with that crossbow before they start calling you the crossbowman)
• Gilbert the Priest
• Grim
• Wulfgifu (almost sounds like an expletive his mother would have screamed upon having him placed in her lap…Wulfgifu!)
• Godwine (filled with the Spirit?)

An finally, we come to the most glorious of names amongst the Holders of Land in Essex:

Roger God-save-the-ladies

Haha! I’m not sure whether to think he was a womanizer and people
had to pray that God would save the ladies every time Roger came
around, or if he was a misogynist serial killer!

Oh to have lived in those days!

Check out these links for more on the Domesday Book:

• http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/domesday/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesday_Book