The Origin of the Freeholders. 19 



THE OEiaiN OF THE FEBEHOLDEES. 



BY WILLIAM P. ALLEN, 

 Professor of Latin and History in the University of Wieconsin. 



[This is a portion of a paper read at Racine, July 11, 18T7, revised and enlarged.] 



The accepted view at present as to the origin of the class of free- 

 holders is, that they represented the old village community, and 

 that their court, the Court Baron, represented the old village as- 

 sembly. Sir Henry Maine says (Yillage Communities, p. 137) : 

 " We cannot doubt that the freeholders of the Tenemental lands 

 correspond in the main to the free heads of households composing 

 the old village community." Prof. Stubbs speaks (Constitution- 

 al Histoiy, Vol. I, p. 399) of the " court baron, the ancient gemot 

 of the township." And Mr. Digby says (Introduction to the His- 

 tory of the Law of Eeal Property, p. 38) : " There can be little 

 doubt that tenure in socage [that is, freehold] is the successor of 

 the allodial proprietorship of early times." And again (p. 43) : 

 " The manor court is the successor of the ancient assembly of the 

 village or township." 



In opposition to this view, I undertook to show in a previous 

 paper * that the so-called customary tenants, who were as a rule 

 serfs, were the representatives of the old village community ; and 

 suggested that the tenants in socage, or freeholders, were 

 " specially privileged vi7Zrtm." I propose at present to develop 

 this last point further, and show that free socage was in its nature 

 a feudal tenure and that the freeholders as a class had a feudal 

 origin. 



First, it should be noted that free tenure was of two kinds : by 

 chivalry or knight's service, and by socage or agricultural service; 

 and that the two classes of tenants, although differing widely in 

 the form of their services and in social position, formed neverthe- 



* See Transactions of the Academy, Vol. II, p. 330. 



