i 3 8 THE DOMESDAY INQUEST 



one team ; he had sublet some of his land to four bordars 

 who worked for him. He was a gafolgelder, and was 

 originally bound to furnish provisions and special services 

 to the King ; but the King had granted these dues, and 

 also sake and soke jurisdiction over him to the abbot ; 

 and during the reign of the Conqueror this freeman sur- 

 rendered his land to the abbot, who let it to a man by the 

 name of Norman. But again we must remind ourselves that 

 neither freemen nor sokemen were essential to the existence 

 of a manor. 



As Professor Maitland has pointed out, Cambridgeshire, 

 in 1066, contained a number of free villages. He has printed 

 an abstract of the pre-Conquest inhabitants of the hundred 

 of Wetherley, showing how that hundred was divided into 

 minute holdings which were occupied by men who had com- 

 mended themselves to one magnate or another. Of all the 

 vills in this hundred, Orwell was the most subdivided. The 

 vill was assessed at 4 hides, and had land for five and a quarter 

 teams, and in 1066 was divided as follows : l 



All these were at liberty to sell or give their lands, and 



1 D. B. and B., 133. 



