12 Domesday and Feudal Statistics 



\ bordars, giving ground to suppose that occa- 

 sionally full villans and bordars may be fractionally 

 composed: in such a case (fo. 324*2, D. B.) as 

 30 villans and 3 ploughs it is equally hard to 

 imagine more than 30 men, less than 24 oxen, or 

 as much as 900 acres of land (i.e., the " so-called ;> 

 normal villan of 30 acres x 30). 



y ne serv ; were a c j ass personally unfree, notable 

 in S.W. England : in that name they soon dis- 

 appeared, becoming presumably free labourers and 

 cottars. 



T\\Q sokemen* make a particular figure in E. 

 England, and were under a lord with varying 

 liberties as regarded their land sometimes they 

 had one lord for soke and another for commenda- 

 tion, and though not rarely performing base services 

 may be referred to the class of liberi homines as 

 opposed to tenants in villenage: at least on one 

 occasion the I. C. Cant, enumerates as villans the 

 sokemen* of D. B. (Wilberton, co. Cambs). In 

 the absence of precise figures Seebohm's estimate 

 of 22-3 acres as an average holding is noted ; in the 

 custumals the smaller freemen seem often of less 

 importance than holders of virgates in villenage. 



The liberi homines* as a sub-class are inconsider- 



* The population assigned to these classes is probably 

 Popular quite unreliable, and members thereof must appear more than 

 estimate of once m fa c record ; the lillani may be roughly rated at 

 homines, 3 per team (8 oxen) : taking the 9067 freemen and sokemen 

 and (Ellis) of Norfolk they can only be assessed at a like no. of 



dfafordant teams as the 4 ?31 villans, on the supposition that neither the 

 with lords nor other of the community had plough oxen. If the 



Domesday. 7723 villans of Lines, are taken at above rate, there will be 

 but ij oxen each left for 11,504 sokemen (4712 teams in the 



