A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



on a large manor, and being cultivated by the labour of the lord of the manor 

 himself, with the help at most of a single cottar.* Apart from these, the 

 holdings of freemen and socmen were of every size from one acre to a 

 hundred or more, but the average holdings were very small, quite as small 

 as, and probably smaller than, the average villein holding, though no details 

 are given of the latter. We may take a rough example from Thingoe 

 Hundred, where the villeins and serfs were more numerous than usual. An 

 average of eleven manors gives about four carucates to the manor, with 

 8 villeins, 7 cottars, and 4 serfs to cultivate it. On these eleven manors the 

 villeins numbered 92, the bordars 80, and the serfs 45. In the same district 

 there were 149 freemen and socmen holding land, the acreage of which was 

 a little more than two-thirds of that of the eleven manors. One of these 

 held two carucates, another one, but the average holding was only about 

 twenty-three acres. To assist in the cultivation of their land they had 

 8 villeins, 84 bordars, and 13 serfs.' 



The relations of the freemen and socmen with small holdings to their 

 superior lords presented a great many varieties. Even before the great 

 change effected by the Conquest they had been exhibiting an increasing 

 degree of dependence, and this tendency was now accentuated. Let us talce 

 a single township in the midst of a district largely inhabited by freemen : 

 the hundred of Hertesmere. There were no less than five tenants-in-chief 

 interested in Gislingham, and under them forty-one freemen had holdings 

 which varied in size from one acre up to thirty. Before the Conquest 

 seven of the smaller holders had been driven by the insecurity of the times 

 to place themselves under the protection of Ulwin, the lord of the neigh- 

 bouring manor of Burgate and of much other land in Suffolk. A group of 

 three freemen, who owned 53 acres, and had a freeman under them with 

 I acre, had commended themselves to another neighbouring Saxon lord. 

 Two other groups of six and four, possessing 13 and 10 acres respectively, 

 had commended themselves severally to two freemen of their own township 

 who held 30 acres apiece as manors. But the Conquest had borne heavily 

 upon these small lords of manors. They had lost all their plough-cattle, and 

 were themselves in need of protection. There was a manor of the larger 

 kind in Gislingham. It had 240 acres as against 295 held by the freemen, 

 but it had only two bordars to assist in its cultivation. It was natural that 

 the lord of this manor and the freemen seeking protection should be drawn 

 together. The two small manors and presumably the two groups of dependent 

 freemen commended themselves to the larger manor, and another group of 

 eight freemen owning 16 acres did the same.* 



The depression in the status of freemen and of socmen which had begun 

 before the Conquest but was accentuated by that great change was not always 

 due to voluntary commendation. In the new distribution of lordship the rights 

 of small holders were often ignored. Bracton tells us at a later date that at 

 the time of the Conquest freemen who were ejected by stronger people came 

 back and received the same lands to be held in villeinage, and by villein 



' Maitland, Dom. Bk. and Beyor.d, 117-18. 



• Suffolk Dom. Thingoe Hundred. The Latin text extended and translated. By John H. The calcu- 

 lations are my own — G. U. 



* Dom. Bk. ii, fol. jzzj^ b, 4404, 444^. 



634 



