82 THE DOMESDAY INQUEST 



presidency of an officer of theirs. In fact, some of the evidence 

 is against this contention. The statement that the Notting- 

 hamshire owners of sake and soke did not receive the earl's 

 third penny would appear to show that in that county, justice 

 was ordinarily administered in the hundred- and shire- moots. 



Some little difficulty is caused by the existence of the 

 Warwick burgesses with sake and soke, and the freemen of the 

 eastern counties who were so free that they could go where 

 they would with sake and soke. 1 Was their privilege acquired 

 or inherent ? Was it the subject of a royal grant ? Professor 

 Maitland thinks that this sake and soke represents the in- 

 herent right of the primitive householder to the fines for 

 offences committed within his own house ; 2 and he gives the 

 same explanation for the case of the sokemen on the Abbot 

 of Ramsey's manor of Broughton, who claimed "legrewite" 

 (the fine for incontinency), and bloodwite, and larceny up to 4^., 

 while the abbot received the forfeiture for larceny of more 

 than ^d? As it was a rule of law that no man could have 

 sake and soke over himself, or receive the forfeitures for his 

 own misdeeds, sake and soke must always operate over 

 inferiors ; and therefore the sake and soke that the Roinges 

 freemen could take with them where they would, must have 

 been sake and soke over their men : no action of theirs could 

 alter the recipient of their own forfeitures. 



The passage concerning the Broughton sokemen shows that 

 the possession of sake and soke did not confer on its owner 

 the right to all forfeitures. The fines for certain offences 

 peace-breach, " heinfare " (forcible entry), and " forestel " 

 (assault) were in the King's demesne throughout England, 

 and were paid to him alone ; the earl had no share in them. 4 

 There were nineteen sokemen at Hersham, in Norfolk. Over 

 three of them the King and earl had sake and soke, while 

 from the others the King had six forfeitures only. 5 William 



1 Roinges D. B., II. 40 b. 2 D. B. and B., 99. 



8 D. B., I. 204 a 2. 4 Id., I. 252 a I. 5 Id., II. 155 b. 



