174 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



villani and hordarii under a socman, himself under a " free 

 man," who was the vassal of the great lord Roger Bigod, 

 Again, "7 sochemanni having 12 villani and 6 hordariV'' 

 Also, sochemanni holding lands " in demesne," like lords of 

 the manor. Again, the introduction to the Ely Inquest pro- 

 poses to ascertain how many villani, how many cotarii, how 

 many slaves — then "how many free men, how many socmen." 



The following is a fuller example of socmen from Cam- 

 bridgshire, a manor held by one Guido : 



[In the time of King Edward] " sixteen sochemanni held 

 this land. Of these, 10 had 2 hides and 1-2 virgate* of the 

 soca of St. Ethelred of Ely, of whom one could not sell his 

 land, the other nine could sell to whom they wished, but the 

 soc of all remained to the church ; and 6 others held one hide 

 and 2 virgates of Count Algar, and could give or sell." 



Of 24 socmen, " 1 held under Edith the fair — all the others 

 were socmen of King Edward." 



We have thus ascertained the probable meaning of soche- 

 mannus, from its etymology, and found this to be supported by 

 the facts as recorded in the survey. Both etymology and evi- 

 dence go to show that this was a class in nearly the same 

 social position with the villani, but not like them members of 

 the village organizations ; that they were an occasional and 

 scattered body, and that they differed very widely from one 

 another in wealth and position. This theory finds a strong 

 support in a provision of the Laws of Edward the Confessorf 

 by which in the Danalagu the "manbote " of the sochemannus 

 and of the villanus is the same, while that of the " free man " 

 is twice as much. A class like this, equal in rank to the 

 members of the native organizations, but occasional, scattered, 

 and differing very widely in standing and wealth, can be best 

 explained by supjDOsing an intrusion, or an invasion and occu- 

 j^ation by the side of the old inhabitants. 



* The virgate was 8 acres ; the hide 4 virgates. 

 tChsp. XII. 



