The EUROPEAN LEGISLATURES. 153 



cumbent on every free citizen, and that the pofTeflion of a fword 

 and a lance was fuch a charadleriftic of freedom, that the cere- 

 mony of emancipating a villein confifted in beftowing them on 

 him. 



I DO not mean to contend, that every degree of emancipa- 

 tion, though creating an obligation to ferve in war, conferred 

 a right of entry into the courts of the hundred and {hire. I 

 rather incline to believe, that, in general, the emancipated re- 

 mained fubjecl: to various burdens in favour of their patrons, 

 and reforted to that domeftic jurifdiction which their patrons 

 exercifed in their own domains ; and that, in turbulent times, 

 many of the original freemen were either compelled by their 

 more powerful neighbours, or found it convenient, for the fake 

 of protection, to fubmit to- fimilar burdens, and to a fimilar 

 degradation. But, on the other hand, we find the Saxon Ceorls 

 entering into fodalitia with the moft confiderable perfons in the 

 flate : We find fokemen, in the oldeft times, members of the 

 county-courts ; and Doomfday proves, that even thofe foke- 

 men, who probably had no entry there, and were transferable 

 by their lords, retained fo much of the characters of the an- 

 cient independence of freemen, that they exercifed the func- 

 tions of fiutors of courts, and were capable of enjoying the 

 emoluments of jurifdiclion *. 



FROM 



* IN enumerating the lands of ROGERUS comes, it is faid in Doomfday-book j 

 " Hanc terrain tenuerunt 6 foccomanni, et dare et vendere terrain fuam potuerunt. 

 " Unuseorum homo regisEnwARDi fuit, et Invuardam invenit vicecomiti. Tres iftorura 

 " Soccomannorum accommodavitPicorus (thevicecomes), ROGEIUO comiti, f rafter pla- 

 " citafua tenenda. Sed pofteaoccupaverunt cos, homines comitis et retinuerunt cum terris 

 " fuis fineliberatione, et rex inde fervitium non habuit, nee habet. Sic ipfe vicecomes dtcit." 

 P. 193. 2. Again, when defcribing Herftingeftan hundred } " Ibi eft terra Soccoman- 

 :< norum 5 hid. ad geld. Terra 8 carruc. et 6 bov. Ifti foccomanni dicunt, fe habuifle le- 

 *' grevitam, blodevitam, latrocinium fuum, ufque ad 4 denar. et poft 4 denar. habe- 

 " bat abbas forisfafturam latrocinii." In the remarks at the end of the furvey of the 

 (hire, it is faid, that a jury informed that, as to thefe 5 hides, " Terra foccomannorum fuit 

 : ' tempore regis EDVVARDI } fed idem rex dedit terram et focam de eis fando Bene- 

 " didlo de RAMSEY, propter unum fervitiom quod abbas ALVINUS fecit ei in Saxonia, 

 " et poflea femper habuit." Huntingtonjbire, 



