136 THE DOMESDAY INQUEST 



a week for their lord. A manor, therefore, may be defined 

 as the estate of a single lord, possessing a demesne farm 

 which is worked by the tenurial labour of some of its inhabit- 

 ants, using the term " tenurial labour " to signify that week- 

 work which must be provided by the tenants as part of the 

 consideration for which they hold their lands. One objection 

 to this definition is the existence of a Suffolk manor on 

 which the only apparent tenants were freemen. 



" In Thistledon Ulmar, a freeman commended to St. Etheldreda 

 holds 60 acres, for a manor, and 5 freemen under him (sub se)" 1 



But the Cambridgeshire Inquest often uses the expression 

 " under him " in places where the Exchequer Domesday 

 says " commended to him ; " and so we may conclude that 

 the five freemen were commended to Ulmar, and were not 

 his tenants. 



This definition will account for a manor being held of a 

 manor. Thus "of the manor of Whitchurch (belonging to 

 the Bishop of Winchester) Ralph fitz Sefride holds a manor 

 which is called Freefolk," 2 in which he succeeded Ednod, 

 who was restrained from commendation. He had succeeded 

 to a sokeman a geneat of the manor of Whitchurch, who 

 furnished provisions and special services to the manor, but 

 was himself the owner of an estate which was cultivated by 

 the villans, bordars, and slaves who were his tenants. 



We can therefore understand what is implied by the 

 existence of several manors in a vill: we have seen that 

 at Horndon in Essex there were five manors, of which the 

 state in 1066 can be thus tabulated 



1 D. B., II. 386. 



2 Id., I. 41 a i. 



