The Rural Population of England. 171 



the powers of jurisdiction had been parcelled out among tlie 

 feudal tenants, they were an essential adjunct to every manor ; 

 but at the time of the Conquest, as we must constantly bear in 

 mind, the system was still in j^rocess of development, and vari- 

 ous stages of it were in existence side by side. 



/Sbc, then, is the territory within which a thegn possessed 

 jurisdiction ; and it is often put for the jurisdiction itself, 

 which was more properly expressed by sac. Illustrations of 

 this use of the word are common in all parts of Domesday 

 Book ; but they are most common in Lincolnshire and the 

 adjoining counties, in which the socmen are principally found. 

 A peculiarity of these counties is that nearly every manor has 

 enumerated as Soca a list of small detached tracts in other 

 manors. For example (I take a very simple case), the manor 

 of Tuxfame, in Nottinghamshire, has 32 villani and 2 hordarii. 

 As Soca belong ; 1, in Schidrinton and Walesbi, 2 hides of 

 land with 6 sochemanni and 1 bordanus;2, in Agemuntone, 11-2 

 hide with 1 sochemannus and 3 villani. Agemuntone has a 

 manor of its own, and in Tuxfarne itself is a soca of West- 

 marcham, containing 3 carucates of land, with 3 sochemanni 

 and 5 villani. Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, and to some 

 extent other counties in the neighborhood, are in this way cut 

 up in a remarkable degree into small places of detached juris- 

 diction. It should be remarked that the soc varies very much ; 

 it appears sometimes to belong to a person, sometimes to a 

 manor. 



Now the term soc was not properly applied to the demesne 

 land, of which the lord of the manor was proprietor^ but to the 

 tenement lands, as they were called, of which he was the 

 prince. The lands of a manor were strictly divided into two 

 parts, both of which were essential to its existence. The 

 demesne land, or "in-land," as it was called in Anglo-Saxon 

 times, was the private estate or farm of the lord, where he had 

 his manor house or castle, and lived surrounded by his retain- 

 ers and serfs. This land was cultivated by slaves, or serfs 



