The Liber Exoniensis or Exon Domesday is a composite land and tax register associated with the Domesday Survey of 1086, covering much of Southwest England. It contains a variety of administrative materials concerning the shires of Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

, Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

, Somerset

Somerset

The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

 and Wiltshire

Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

. The sole surviving copy is MS 3500 in the Exeter Cathedral

Exeter Cathedral

Exeter Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter at Exeter, is an Anglican cathedral, and the seat of the Bishop of Exeter, in the city of Exeter, Devon in South West England....

 Library.

Contents

The leaves may have been rearranged and rebound in 1816, when the first edition of the volume appeared in print. The original arrangement of the quires cannot be recovered. Five principal types of records can be distinguished:

1. The greater part consists of records obtained from the returns of the Domesday Inquest, covering Somerset, Cornwall, Devon (incomplete), Dorset (incomplete) and one entry for Wiltshire. Most entries have identical counterparts in Great Domesday. However, while the Great Domesday entries are organised county by county, Exon has them arranged by landholder.
2. Summary accounts of geld
   Geld
   Geld may refer to:* Money, in Dutch or German languages* Danegeld, or any Anglo-Saxon or Norman land tax often based on hides* Weregeld* Gelt, Yiddish for money* Gelding, castrated animal-See also:* Gold * Gel...
   
   , a form of public tax assessed on the hide. Three (A, B and C) are for Wiltshire, while single summaries are included for Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset. For every hundred, the total number of hides is given, and of these, the number of hides that owed geld and those that did not because they were held in demesne by the king or his barons. The text ascribes the collection of geld to an inquisitio geldi (Geld Inquest), which was undertaken around the time of the Inquest, probably in 1086.
3. Terre Occupate (or Terrae Occupatae), i.e., lists of lands in Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall that were appropriated, e.g., by illegal means.
4. Two lists of hundreds in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall.
5. Summaries of fees held by individual tenants-in-chief as well as an index-list of 26 fees.

folios	summary	comment
1–3v	Wiltshire geld account A	latest revision
7–9v	Wiltshire geld account B
11–12v	Dorset boroughs
13–16v	Wiltshire geld account C
17–24	Dorset geld account, Summary
25–62v	Dorset Domesday: 12 fees in Dorset, 1 in Wiltshire (f. 47)
63–64v	Two lists of the hundreds in Devon, Cornwall, and Somerset
65–71	Devon geld account
72–73	Cornwall geld account
75–82v	Somerset geld account (part)
83–494v	Exeter Domesday: fees in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset
495–506v	Terre Occupate in Devon
507–508v	Terre Occupate in Cornwall
508v–525	Terre Occupate in Somerset
526–527v	Somerset geld account (small part only)
527v–531	Accounts of some fees
532–532v	Index listing 26 fees and headings