I beg to propose the following "Query":--Is the _Dombec_, a work
referred to in the Laws of Edward the Elder, the same as what has been
called the Domesday or Winchester Book of Alfred the Great? I incline
to think that it is not, and shall be much obliged to any of your
correspondents, learned in the Anglo-Saxon period of our history, who
will give himself the trouble of resolving my doubts.
Sir Henry Spelman, in his Glossary _voce Dombec_, calls it the _Liber
Judicialis_ of the Anglo-Saxons; and says it is mentioned in the first
chapter of the laws of Edward the Elder, where the king directs his
judges to conduct themselves in their judicial proceedings as on [Old
English: thaere dom bec stand], that is, as _is enjoined in their Dome
Book_.--"Quod," he continues, "an de præcedentium Regum legibus quæ
hodie extant, intelligendum sit: an de alio quopiam libro hactenus non
prodeunte, incertum est."
But this uncertainty does not seem to have attached itself to the
mind of Sir William Blackstone; for in the third section of the
Introduction prefixed to his _Commentaries on the Laws of England_, he
informs us that our antiquaries "tell us that in the time of Alfred,
the local customs of the several provinces of the kingdom were grown
so various, that he found it expedient to compile his _Dome Book_, or
_Liber Judicialis_, for the general use of the whole kingdom." This
book is said to have been extant so late as the reign of King Edward
IV., but is now unfortunately lost. It contained, we may probably
suppose, the principal maxims of the common law, the penalties for
misdemeanors, and the forms of judicial proceedings. Thus much may be
at least collected from that injunction to observe it, which we find
in the Laws of King Edward the Elder, the son of Alfred.--"_Omnibus
qui reipublicæ præsunt etiam atque etiam mando, ut omnibus æquos
se præbeant judices, perinde ac in judiciali libro_ (Saxonice, [Old
English: dom bec]) _scriptum habetur: nec quidquid formident quin
jus commune_ (Saxonice, [Old English: folcrihte]) _audactes libereque
dicant._"
But notwithstanding this, it appears to me by no means conclusive,
that the _Dombec_ referred to in the Laws of Edward the Elder and the
_Liber Judicialis_ of Alfred are the same; on the contrary, Alfred's
_Liber Judicialis_ seems to have been known not under the name
of _Dombec_, but under that of the _Winchester Roll_, from the
circumstance of its having been principally kept at Winchester: and
Sir Henry Spelman says, the Domesday Book of William the Conqueror was
sometimes called _Rotulus Wintoniæ, a similitudine antiquoris_, from
its resemblance to an older document preserved at Winchester. And he
quotes Ingulphus Abbot of Croyland, who says, "Iste rotulus (i.e. the
Domesday Book of William) vocatus est Rotulus Wintoniæ, et ab Anglicis
pro sua generalitate, omnia tenementa totius terræ integre continente
_Domesday_ cognominatur." And the he proceeds, "Talem rotulum et
multum similem; ediderat quondam Rex Alfredus, in quo totam terram
Angliæ per comitatus, centurias, et decurias descripserat, sicut
prænotatur. Qui quidem Rotulus Wintoniæ vocatus est, quia deponebatur
apud Wintoniam conservandus," &c.
Here is nothing said of this work being called [Old English: dom bec]:
neither does Spelman, in his enumeration of the works of Alfred,
give the least intimation that any one of his collections of laws was
called [Old English: dom bec].
We know, indeed, that Alfred compiled a code of laws for his subjects;
but whether any part of them has been preserved, or how much of them
is embodied in subsequent codes, cannot now be determined. Asser
mentions that he frequently reprimanded the judges for wrong
judgments; and Spelman, that he wrote "a book against unjust
magistrates," but any complete body of laws, if such was ever framed
by Alfred, is now lost; and that attributed to him in Wilkin's _Leges
Anglo-Saxon_, is held in suspicion by most writers.
For these reasons, and considering that Sir William Blackstone's
knowledge of English history was rather superficial, I incline to the
belief, that the [Old English: dom bec] referred to in the laws of
Edward the Elder, was some collection of laws made _prior_ to the time
of Alfred: this might clearly be the case, as Sharon Turner informs
us that the Saxon laws were committed to writing as early as the
commencement of the 7th century.
The opinions of your learned correspondents on this disputed point may
be of much interest to many of your readers, and to none more than to
George Munford.
East Winch.
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