The Domesday Book
Genealogy Index | Orme in Europe
The Domesday Book was a survey and valuation of landed property in England, taken in 1086. It was not a census of the population, and is of limited use in tracing a family name. Some of the areas that would be likely to have an Orme were not included in the survey, the survey does not cover London, Winchester, Northumberland, Durham or much of north west England. Parts of what is now northern England, such as Westmorland and Cumberland, belonged to Scotland at the time so they were not included.
The information in the Domesday book is listed by County, under each County it is listed by Barons, and under each Baron it is listed by land holders. There is no index to it and a computerised database is not available, so the only way to extract all instances of somebody named Orme would be to read every page. If anybody is interested in doing that, a bound facsimile of the Domesday book can be purchased for a mere £7,750 (plus tax) - for the limited information that it could provide and the time it would take this would not be a worthwhile enterprise.
The few dribbles of information about Ormes that have been found from the Domesday book by various people are as follows:
York: A land holder named Orm, holding his lands directly from the crown.
Lincoln: A tenant named Orm.
North Yorkshire: A man named Orm owning land in 29 different parishes (all owned by the same man).
Staffordshire: The manor of Knypersley owned by 'Orm of Darlaston' (Darlaston is near Wolverhampton).
The Bolden Buke.
A book similar to the Domesday book was produced for Durham in 1183. The Bolden Buke shows that in 1183 land at Preston-on-Tees was farmed by Adam son of 'Walter of Stockton', Orm son of Cockett, and William son of Utting.
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