A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



sokeman as primarily a free peasant tied to the soil and unable to ' recede 

 with his land,' though he also reminds us that ' ultimately the central notion 

 in the socman's position is his subjection to soke.'**" Thus a man could be 

 indifferently described as a ' sokeman ' and as ' in the soke ' of the Abbot of 

 Ely.*" Reference is made to the services performed by Suffolk sokemen 

 in the record of the famous Ely placitum.^^ Here we read of the 

 sokemen {socamans) of St. Etheldreda at Melton, in Carlford Hundred, that 

 ' they belonged so fully {ita proprie) to the Abbot ' that they had to go forth 

 {ire) whenever the reeve of the monastery commanded, and pay fines for all 

 offences {pmnem rei emendationem per solvere) , and if one of them wished to sell 

 any of his possessions, he had first to get permission from the reeve. At 

 Brandon, Lisois de Moustiers held six socamans, of whom we are told ' arabunt 

 et c'terent (sic) messes ejusdem loci quotienscunque abbas precepit,' while 

 others again ploughed, weeded (purgabunt) , and reaped {colligent segetes), carried 

 the monks' food to the monastery, provided horses for the abbot when he 

 needed them, and paid fines to him for their own offences and those of their 

 subordinates (' de omnibus illis qui in terris eorum deliquerint ').*"' 



In conclusion, if we glance at the distribution of sokemen in Suffolk we 

 see that they are most numerous in the hundreds of Blackbourn and Stow, 

 where there are about 152 and 98 respectively; from 30 to 40 are found in 

 each of the hundreds of Thingoe, Lackford, Risbridge, Babergli, Hartismere, 

 Bishop's, Wangford, and Bradmere ; between 20 and 30 in Bosmere Hundred, 

 under 20 but over 10 in the hundreds of Loes, Samford, and Wilford, and in 

 Cosford Half-hundred, 10 in Carlford Hundred, and under 10 in the hundreds 

 of Blything, Plomesgate, Claydon, and Thedwastre, while they are altogether 

 absent from Colneis Hundred, where there were many freemen, and from the 

 half-hundreds of Parham, Lothingland, and Ipswich. The sokemen, like the 

 freemen, were depressed by the Conquest, and we see Roger the Sheriff 

 treating them in a very high-handed fashion on the king's manor of Thorney, 

 removing them, and granting them out to new lords, while at Hintlesham, 

 Suart, Stigand's sokeman, had been replaced by the Frenchman, Ralph ; at 

 Framlingham, Walter of Caen had succeeded the sokewoman leva ; and on 

 the manor of Bergholt the number of sokemen had fallen from 210 to 1 19.*^" 

 For the unfree peasantry in Suffolk a few words will suffice, as they present 

 no specially distinctive features. They include villani and dimidii villani, who 

 are closely bound up with the cultivation of the arable, and with the village 

 economy ; bordarii, dimidii bordarii, and homines bordarii, cottagers or crofters, 

 often serving under freemen on the small Suffolk manors ; and servi, who 

 form less than a twentieth of the recorded population.*" Four bovarii are also 

 mentioned, and four smiths, who, however, are counted as freemen, with 



"" Dom. Bk. 282, Stonham ; ' Iste socmannus non poterat recedere' ; 353, 'Nordberia' ; 364^, ' Elmes- 

 wella.' VinogradofF, op. cit. 433-5,et seq. Cf. the Suffolk cases cited in the notes. Ci. M.z\t\3-ad, Dom, Bk, 

 and Beyond ; Index, * FreizUgigkeit ' ; cf. Round, Feud. Engl, 28 et seq. 



"' Ante, n. 387. 



"" Ing. Co. Camb. (ed. Hamilton), 193, 194. Round, op. cit. 32, 33 ; Maitland, op. cit. 77. 



"' Ing. Co. Camb. (ed. Hamilton;, 193-5. Cf. ' Suthburna,' ' Kycestuna ' (Kingston), ' Berham,' ' Kars- 

 flet ' ; ' 4 homines qui tantum debent servire abbati cum propriis equis in omnibus necessitatibus suis.' Cf. 

 Maitland, op. cit. 77. 'We observe that the sokemen of the east like the radmen of the west have horses.' 

 Cf ' Drincestune '; Inq. Co. Camb. 194, ' 15 socamans ... 6 homines de soca.' 



*"" Dom. Bk. lilb, 287, 295^, 296, 3251J, 425, Boulge; where a villein's name is given ; VinogradofF, 

 op. cit. 442 et seq. 



'" Ellis, Introd. to Domesday, ii, 488 et seq. 



406 



