Domesday Book. 165 



had not proceeded to sucli lengtlis at the time of the Survey as 

 to require the creation of the term Paravail, which afterwards 

 signified the rear vassal or lowest tenant of the fee. The 

 Miles, also termed homo liber, was generally a subfeudarius, 

 the value of whose fee (if he possessed, a whole one) was 

 probably £20, though fees varied in value according to the 

 beneficence of the king or other donors of this class of tenure. 

 We may be sure that an individual, whether he is called homo 

 liber, miles, vavassour, or any other name, was of the seigneur 

 class if he held his lands by sacha and soca,^ which signified a 

 liberty to try causes, with a peculiar jurisdiction between the 

 lord and tenants, or his men and tenants.^ 



On the other hand, the application of the term socman signi- 

 fied any one subject to the soc or jurisdiction of a lord.^ He 

 was a free socman if exempted from servile labour. The term 

 seems principally applied to the villeins of the East of England, 

 and therefore probably originated in the Danish settlements. 

 This class was divided into free soccage tenants and villein 

 soccage tenants, according as their services were honourable or 

 the reverse. The former were generally liable to military ser- 

 vice, and though free from the calls of ordinary weekly predial 

 service on the demesne lands, were bound to perform the so- 

 called precationes or special labour tasks at seed time and 

 harvest, like their inferiors, the villein soccage tenants."* 

 Another name for these in the Survey is coliberti, of which 

 only a few hundred entries occur. 



Arrived at the villein class, we shall not confine ourselves to 

 the various terms contained in the Survey, but shall collate 

 the principal nomenclature discovered in the Manorial Rolls 

 of later years. 



Now, the two chief distinctions of this class were the villein 

 regardant, who was said to be annexed to the Manor, and the 

 villein in gross, who was annexed to his lord. It was an im- 



' Sac, sac2i, or sac7iM== litigation; socm= jurisdiction. — Stubbs, Constit. 

 Hist. 

 ^ Kelbam's Domesday Book. 

 ^ Ashley, Economic Histo7'y, p. 18. 

 ' Id., Ibid. 



