A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



out that the same man may be styled teinus in one entry and liber homo in 

 another, or both liber homo and sochemannus in the same passage.'" Thus 

 ' Alsi, a freeman,' who, as we learn from Domesday Book, was ' added ' with 

 his 30-acre manor to the Abbot of Ely's manor of Winston, and who was 

 in the abbot's ' soke and commendation,' is described in the corresponding 

 entry of the Inquisitio Eliensis as ' freeman ' and ' sokeman in the commenda- 

 tion of St. Etheldreda.' '" No doubt the Suffolk freemen varied greatly in 

 wealth and social standing. Some were large landholders, others were mere 

 peasant occupiers.'** There were degrees of freedom, too, even within the 

 class of freemen. Some, hke St. Edmund's free tenants at Downham, Groton, 

 Rickinghall, and Hepworth, were at liberty to give and sell their land, though 

 they were, as a rule, under the abbot's soke and commendation, and owed 

 service sometimes in manors at some distance from their homes.'*' Or again, 

 they might be less free, in that they could not alienate their land without 

 leave from their lord, as on St. Edmund's estates at Bradfield, Saxham, and 

 Brockley, where some freemen could sell and some could not, and at Little 

 Fakenham."" At Brockley there were two freemen, commended to the king, 

 who might only sell in St. Edmund's soke. At Barton, Fornham, and Roug- 

 ham the free tenants were subjected, in addition to commendation and 

 customary dues {comuetudines) , to the peculiarly irksome duty of ' fold-soke,' 

 or bringing their sheep to the abbot's fold, an obligation which is generally 

 regarded as a distinct mark of inferiority.''^ On the other hand, free tenants 

 enjoyed a considerable amount of independence, especially before the Con- 

 quest. They were lords of manors and had tenants, free and unfree, under 

 them, and we gather from a case which occurred in connexion with the out- 

 lawry of Edric of Laxfield that they might be at liberty to choose their own 

 lords. When Edric of Laxfield was reconciled to King Edward, he restored 

 to him his land, and ' gave him writ and seal that whosoever of his commended 

 freemen should wish to return to him they might return.' There was, how- 

 ever, evidently, no compulsion, and it was doubtful whether Edric the free- 

 man had returned to his lord or remained ' in the king's hand.' "^ Appar- 

 ently the freemen who had no other lord were regarded as directly under the 

 king,'" and both before and after the Conquest the king used his authority to 

 make grants of freemen and the royal rights over them to private individuals."* 

 From these grants, from the definite oppression of sheriffs and reeves, and 

 from the encroachments and greed of great men, it came about that the 

 smaller freemen were gradually absorbed into the large fiefs, but the frequent 



"• Ante, p. 401 ; F.C.H. Nor/, ii, 28-9. 



"^ Dom. Bk. 383^ ; Inf. El. (Rec. Com.), 525^. Cf. Dom. Bk. 353, 'Nordberia,' where a sokemin 

 appears to be reckoned as a freeman. 



•^ Vinogradoff, Engl. Soc. in the Eleventh Cent. 414 et seq. Cf. Dom. Bk. 344. Small freemen holding 

 under Roger Bigot. 



**' Dom. Bk. 359, 359^, 362, 364^, 365, 365^, 395^. ' Isti sunt liberi homines qui T.R.E. poterant 

 terras suas vendere et donare; ' Vinogradoff, op. cit. 422 ; cf Dom. Bk. 364; Stow ; Service in Lackford ; 365^, 

 Hepworth ; Service in Stanton and Coney Weston ; Hopton, Barningham ; Service in Coney Weston. 



»» Ibid. 3 5 7^ 358, 362, 3674 370^. 37 >• 



"' Ibid. 349^, 3613, 362 ; Vinogradoff, op. cit. 424 ; cf. Dom. Bk. 3io3, 'In Alrincham i. liber homo 

 commendatione et soca falde et alia servitia xx. acras.' 



"' Ibid. 3103. Here the freeman Edric, commended to Edric of Laxfield, himself had freemen com- 

 mended to him. Cf Stanwin's case, 313, 318^ ; cf 394, ' Assia,' 397^. A freeman of whom the hundred 

 knew not if he could sell T.R.E. , but witness that they saw him swear that he could not. 



'" Ibid. 447. Cf 283, Weston ; 44^*, Thurlston. 



'" Ibid. 282^. On this subject cf Vinogradoff, op. cit. 426 et seq. ; Dom. Bk. 420^ ; 'Torp,' 4463. 



404 



