

THEIR CONDITION IN 1066 



But the assessment of the holdings of some of these sokemen 

 is not recorded, and we may therefore conclude that the pre- 

 Conquest freeholders of Cambridgeshire held one quarter of 

 the 1233 hides at which that county was assessed. 



A similar account for Sussex shows the following figures : 



114 liberi homines, holding 219 hides. 



46 men with liberty of commendation, holding 131 hides. 



105 allodiaries, holding i6o| hides. 



But Sussex was assessed at 3474 hides in 1066 : so that 

 those who may be classed as freeholders held less than 

 1 5 per cent, of the county. 



Similar counts for separate hundreds in some of the other 

 counties show that the number of freeholders formed a large 

 proportion of the inhabitants of England in 1066. And it 

 should be stated that these hundreds are not selected for the 

 purpose. 



