THE POST-DOMESDAY EVIDENCE 163 



of "journeying with the said abbess to her manors, or sending 

 with her any man of hers, French or English, provided he was 

 not a villain of the abbess." The court held that she had 

 not proved that these were the terms of her tenancy, and 

 that she was a tenant by military service ; but her attempt 

 to prove that her tenure was socage, by alleging that she 

 rendered services similar to those of the freeman at Ciren- 

 cester in 1086, and of the radman at Hallow, and of the 

 geneat of the Rectitudines Singularum Personarum, shows 

 the connection between the socage tenure of the thirteenth 

 century and the tenure of the sokemen of the eleventh 

 century. 



The monastic cartularies give many instances of grants 

 of land in socage. In the year after the death of the Con- 

 queror, the Abbot of Ramsey granted Over (Cambs.) on a 

 lease for the lives of a man and his wife, at a fine of a mark 

 of gold and a rent of 6 a year ; l and a few years later he 

 leased Dillington to Ralph, the brother of Ilger (who is 

 mentioned in Domesday Book), for life at a rent of 3 a 

 year. 2 Between 1205 and 1222 Walter, Abbot of Malmes- 

 bury, granted half a hide in Walcot, for which the tenant was 

 to pay Ss. a year rent, \2d. for hundred-silver, and i8</. for 

 yeresyive (New Year's gift) ; in addition, he had to provide 

 5 bushels of wheat for church-shot, and to perform certain 

 agricultural services to plough 2 acres, to mow I acre, and 

 to reap for two days in the abbot's fields. 3 Previously 

 Abbot Osbert (c. 1180) had granted half a hide at Fox- 

 ham at a yearly rent of 14^., and the tenant was to plough 

 3 acres of the abbot's land. 4 The services here reserved are 

 boon-works, occasional works at busy times. 



Hence we see that the socage tenants after the Conquest 

 rendered definite services for their lands, and that it was a 

 matter of dispute whether, without an express reservation, 



1 Cart. Rams., i. 120. 2 Jd. t 128. 



3 Registrum Malmesburiense, i. 436. * Id., 459. 



