Historians have long recognized the importance of the three twelfth-century surveys of the estates of Shaftesbury Abbey, the richest nunnery in England. These difficult manuscripts are now published for the first time, together with thirty charters relating to the lordship. The documents enable the reader to trace the effects of a rising population on the obligations and holdings of the peasantry. Much light is shed on the position of parish priests, the nuns' chaplains, and household servants; upon urban life in a small private borough; and the development of personal names in the 150 years since the Conquest. The introduction sets the documents in their context, and reveals how significant they are to our understanding of economic, social and monastic life in twelfth-century England.