Earl Shilton, like many English villages, first appears in recorded history in the Domesday Book of 1086, which is the first complete tax record for the whole of England. One of the parcels of land granted to Hugh de Grandmesnil by William the Conqueror was the village of Scheltone, now known as Earl Shilton. The village measured some 500 acres (2 km2), standing on the top of a long, narrow ridge in the southwest of the county. Schulton or Scheltone is an ancient word, which means shelf. Shilton is therefore Scheltone or shelf-town. The village boasted 3 ploughs, with 1 serf and 4 sokemen. Sokemen were the highest class of free peasants, a lower aristocracy, and were thought to be the descendants of the Danes who settled in the East Midlands. The village also had a priest, 10 villeins and 5 bordars. Villeins and bordars were below sokemen and tied to the land. Villeins often held between 30 and 100 acres (100,000 to 400,000 m2), while bordars were of a lower standing and usually had a smallholding.