176 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arls, and Letters. 



there being plenty of unoccupied land — partly public land, 

 partly tbe waste of tlie several manors — assigned tracts to tbeir 

 followers from tins. The leaders became thegns, and under 

 their soc were two classes, equal in rank — the native villani, 

 and the svchemanni, the rank and file of their own army. 

 This will explain the irregularity and disparit}^ in the condi- 

 tion of the socmen.* 



The theory that the socmen were the descendents of Danish 

 settlers, finds confirmation in a law of King Cnut, which fixes 

 the heriot, that is, "the military equipment of a vassal, which 

 on his death reverted to the lord " [Stubbs.] After giving 

 that of the three grades of nobility, the Earl, the King's thegn 

 and the medial thegn, it goes on : " and the heriot of a King's 

 thegn among the Danes, who has his soken, four pounds, "f 

 Now we have found soJcen, that is, detached places under the 

 jurisdiction of a thegn or manor, to be very abundant in the 

 counties where the Danes were found ; and the passage just 

 quoted proves some peculiar and special relation of the sesoken 

 to Danish thegns. 



I have now shown : 1. From the meaning of the word soc, and 

 hs use as contrasted with the " inland " or demesne, that the 

 sochemanni were probably a somewhat scattered and irregular 

 class, under the jurisdiction of the several thegns. 2, From 

 the records of Domesday Book, that they were actu.ally a scat- 

 tered and irregular class, under the authority of individual 

 thegns, nobles and great persons. 3. From the Laws of 

 Edward the Confessor, that their rank was the same as that of 

 the villani, who were the native English peasantry, and were 

 likewise under the jurisdiction of their several tliegns. 4 

 That the existence of such a local and exceptional class as the 

 socmen can be best explained by supposing an intrusion from 

 some foreign country, which introduced an irregular body by 



* When the Danisli counties were recovered by the English Kings, the Danish thegns 

 were not displaced, and says Palgrave, "as late as the reign of Ethelred, we can trace 

 their existence as a privileged community, distinct from the kingdom in which they 

 were included." A. S., p. 97. 



t Stubbs, Select Charters, p. 73. 



