THE MANOR AND THE VILLAGE 33 



were in lay hands it would, in the ordinary course, pass 

 from father to son, remaining in the same family for 

 many generations, unless it happened that the manorial 

 lord broke some feudal rule that caused his land to 

 escheat to and become vested in his superior. In such 

 cases it would be re-granted to some new owner to hold 

 on similar feudal terms as his predecessor. Not only 

 were such new grants made of old manors, but new 

 manors were created by the grant of the lord of a 

 manor of some part of his estate specially allotted. 

 This practice of so creating new manors ceased in the 

 year I29O. 1 



Few of the greater lords would be found in those 

 days permanently residing in any particular manor, 

 and in their absence the representative would be a 

 seneschal, a land agent or lawyer steward, who would 

 supervise several manors, having under him a bailiff 

 for each estate. 



There might be, in a manor, a few free farmers, 

 socmen 2 and other freemen. These men had a privi- 

 leged position, and stood between the lord and the 

 lower class of farmers, often acting as a barrier to the 

 encroachments of the former on the common and other 

 rights. Some freemen held their land on quite trivial 

 or nominal services, others continued, as had their pre- 

 decessors of the past, to hold their land subject to clearly 

 defined obligations, either military or religious, or, if 

 agricultural, of a superior kind, such as attending with 

 their ploughs on certain days in the year to plough 

 parts of the lord's lands. This class was not large 

 in number, save in parts of the north-east of England. 

 The main body of the farmers were no longer free but 

 definitely 'bondsmen,' and as such subject to the rule 

 1 See Appendix, p. 176. 2 Ibid., p. 163. 



4 



