ii2 THE DOMESDAY INQUEST 



2. THEIR CONDITION IN IO66 



It is only for the eastern counties that the state of the 

 villages in 1066 is recorded ; and here we find villans, bordars, 

 slaves, freemen, and sokemen living side by side ; but the 

 villans, bordars, and slaves are always enumerated in con- 

 nection with the teams in demesne, while the freemen and 

 sokemen are enumerated separately. Thus 



"St. Edmund held RISBY (Suffolk) for a manor and for two 

 carucates of land. Always 4 villans and 2 bordars, and then two 

 teams in demesne. Now four. Always one team of the tenants. 

 Then 3 slaves & one acre of meadow. Now 3 rounceys and 12 

 oxen and 30 pigs, & 90 sheep, & 32 goats, and 7 sokemen of one 

 carucate and a half, and one bordar and one slave with three teams. 

 Over these men the Saint has sake and soke and commendation and 

 all custom, nor can they give or sell their land without the conces- 

 sion of the Abbot. ... In the same (vill) one freeman gave a 

 carucate of land, which Norman holds of the abbot, & 4 bordars 

 & i slave & i team & i acre of meadow. He could give & sell his 

 land, but his sake and soke and commendation remained to the 

 Saint." l 



Here we notice (i) that the villans, bordars, and slaves 

 are associated with the demesne ; (2) that the sokemen and 

 freemen are dissociated from the demesne ; (3) that the areas 

 of the holdings of the sokemen and the freemen are stated ; 

 (4) that the difference between the sokemen and the free- 

 man lay in the fact that the latter could sell his land, while 

 the sokemen must obtain the permission of their lord before 

 doing so. 



In our discussion of the manor we have already laid 

 emphasis on the first of these points ; and the invariability 

 of the rule that wherever demesne is found, villans, bordars, 

 and slaves (or one or another of these classes) are to be 

 found, has led us to conclude that the existence of the 



1 D. B., II. 356 b. 



