5. SOKE, TITLE, AND
THE ORIGINS OF MANORS
In his seminal essay Types of Manorial Structure in the Northern
Danelaw, and various other works on the East Midlands, F. M. Stenton
elegantly argued that the fundamental distinction of pre-Conquest tenure in the
North lay between demesne and land in soke. In the one, the lord had full
proprietorial rights and could dispose of his land at will. In the other, he
only had certain limited interests and dues. The most important of these, and
the basic characteristic of sokeland, was jurisdiction. The sokeman was
personally free and could usually alienate his land without the consent of his
lord, but he was obliged
to make suit to his court.[9]
There can be no doubt that there was a very marked divide between the two
concepts - land in dominio and in soca is contrasted throughout circuit
6. In terms of title to, and tenure of, estates, however, it is only of
secondary importance. The distinction between terra, 'land', and soke was of far greater significance in the
transfer of land from Englishman to Norman tenant-in-chief. The dichotomy is
most clearly apparent in 'forinsec soke entries'.[10]
In Nottinghamshire, there are some sixteen sokeland entries in which the land
was held by one tenant-in-chief and the soke by another.[11]
In Hodsock, for example, Roger de Bully, had two parcels of land which were
soke of the king's manors of Mansfield and Bothamsall.[12]
The king had the jurisdiction, but the land itself was held by the
tenant-in-chief who clearly derived dues, other than the profits of justice,
from it.[13]
In general, this interest normally conferred full title, for
subsequently the soke relationship was forgotten, or relegated to a
minor role, and the land said to be held in chief.[14]
The lords of Mansfield and Bothamsall, for example, do not seem to have retained
any interests of significance in Hodsock.[15] In
the same way, both manors and berewicks could be held by one tenant-in-chief
and the soke by another. Ralf de Mortemer held a manor in Harmston,
Lincolnshire, in succession to Copsi, but Earl Hugh had the soke in Waddington.[16]
Indeed, throughout the Clamores of
circuit 6, terra and soca are consistently contrasted. Nigel
Fossard, for example, held five parcels of land in Yorkshire in succession to
three named individuals, but the soke belonged to Conisborough which had been
held by Earl Harold in 1066.[17] It
is evident, then, that the possession of soke did not in itself confer title to
land. It was merely a render, by no means the most important, which was due
from an estate. Tenure was derived from a more basic interest in the land
itself.[18]
This interest lies at the heart of
the relationship between the hall and sokeland and was evidently the basis of
the identity of the manor. It is clear that the soke of many, if not most,
manors was not held by the tenant recorded in Domesday Book. We have already
seen that Roger de Bully's predecessor probably had sake and soke, toll and
team over Hodsock and Blyth, although Wulfsi his tenant was in no way so
privileged.[19]
Elsewhere the reservation of the liberties to
an over-lord is more apparent.
In Lincolnshire, for example, Fyach, Harold the Staller, and Azer son of
Sualeua had sake and soke, toll and team,[20] but
they apparently held no land in demesne in the county for their names do not
appear in the text. It seems likely, however, that their rights extended over
the manors held by undertenants. Thus, Robert Malet claimed sokeland in
Ingoldsby (Lincs.) against Gilbert de Ghent through his predecessor Azer.[21]
His three manors in Lincolnshire, however, were held by a certain Godwin.[22]
Only in his Nottinghamshire breve
does Azer son of Sualeua appear,[23] but
it was to him that soke was re-served throughout his estates. Nevertheless,
although the tenant of the manor did not always enjoy soke qua jurisdiction, there is evidence to suggest that the manor and
its appurtenances still had a distinct identity as an integrated whole. First,
the grant of the manorial caput, the
lord's hall, usually implied a grant of the sokeland associated with it. Thus,
in the Lincolnshire wapentake of Graffoe, St. Peter of Westminster claimed
various parcels of sokeland against Baldwin the Fleming on the grounds that the
abbey had been granted the chief manor by the king. The wapentake agreed on the
fact of the grant, and the plea was allowed.[24] In
so far as the manor as economic unit was different from manor as soke centre,[25]
even forinsec sokeland was probably an integral part of an estate: Roger de
Bully's land in Hodsock was evidently part of the manor he held in succession
to Wulfsi in the same vill,[26]
while six bovates of land were soke of Saundby but belonged to the manor of
Bole.[27]
Second, the form of many manors suggests an identity somewhat greater than the
sum of the parts. The manor of Ruskington in Lincolnshire, for example,
consisted of most of the wapentake of Flaxwell, and cannot have derived its
form from the chance commendation of 197 sokemen.[28]
Finally, the manor was given a value for both 1066 and 1086. Almost without
exception, these sums are highly conventional figures, being multiples of
standard units of account like the Danish ora
of sixteen pence.[29] They
clearly cannot be derived from the addition of separate dues rendered by a
population free to dispose of its lands at will. The lord expected, and presumably
received, a standard sum which implies an established and unilaterally
inalienable right in the manorial appurtenances.[30]
Indeed, the sokeman's right to the free alienation of his land has probably
been exaggerated. It is true that much evidence has been adduced to demonstrate
his independence of seigneurial control,[31] but
the typical services that he rendered are very similar to those which were due
from the precarious thanelands of the abbey of Ely in Cambridgeshire,[32]
and recent research has demonstrated that
he was tenurially dependent in
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.[33]
Tenure in socage, then, was clearly not as free as it seems.[34]
Although the sokeman was personally free, his manorial lord evidently had an
interest in his land which was other than jurisdiction and which could not be
unilaterally withdrawn.
It is unlikely, however, that the
tenant of the manor named in Domesday Book had unequivocal rights to terra. As we have seen,[35]
the tenant-in-chief's title to an estate was derived from the overlord. Thus,
Count Alan had title to land in
Billingborough through his predecessor Ralf the Staller rather than the tenant
Carle. His interest was evidently more than soke for, where a tenant-in-chief
only had jurisdiction, the land was held by a second tenant-in-chief or was
entered in the land of the king's thanes. Soke no more conferred right to
manors than it did to land. William Peverel, for example, had the soke of two
manors in Sutton (Passeys) which were held by Aelfric and Brown, but the
holdings were not enrolled in his breve.[36]
Count Alan's estate, by way of contrast, was an integral part of his fee.
The overlord, then, appears to have
had residual rights to land in the manors of his tenants which were other than
soke. In some instances, his title may have been confined to terra. The king, for example, retained
unspecified soke over the archbishop of York's manor of Laneham until
1060×1065.[37]
Many, probably most, overlords, however, held both land and soke, and their
liberties were usually expressed by the term sake and soke. This privilege,
with the root meaning of 'cause' and 'seeking' is generally held to be
synonymous with soke, and normally refers to the rights of an individual to the
profits of justice within his land.[38]
Thus, in both Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire, the holders of sake and soke, toll
and team,[39]
had the king's custom of two pennies, that is the king's share of the
forfeitures of their men.[40] In
effect, they were entitled to their own courts, although the king retained soke
that was normally reserved to the crown,[41] and
their estates were thereby withdrawn from the wapentake or, in hidated England,
the hundred.[42]
Hence, in the Huntingdonshire Clamores,
we read that King Edward gave Swineshead to Earl Siward with sake and soke, and
so Earl Harold held it, except that (its men) gelded in the hundred and went
with them against the enemy.[43] Sake
and soke, then,
has specific legal referrents. The connotations of the liberty, however,
were such that the term was used in a wider context which contrasts the idea
with simple soke. In excluding the king, the phrase naturally lent itself to
the expression of full rights over a property which preclude all other
interests and dispute. Guy de Craon, for example, claimed six bovates of land
in Gosberton in the Lincolnshire wapentake of Kirton which had been held by his
predecessor Adestan, but he was unsuccessful because Count Alan's predecessor
had had sake and soke over it.[44]
Throughout the Lincolnshire and Yorkshire Clamores,
sake and soke is usually employed in this extended sense, for, with only two
possible exceptions,[45] it
is carefully distinguished from the more nebulous concept of soke. It is stated
by the wapentake of Calcewath in Lincolnshire, for example, that 'In Huttoft
hundred Alfred claims two bovates of land. And the men of the Riding say that
he ought to have one with sake and soke: the other is his in like wise, but
Earl Hugh has the soke in Greetham'.[46] The
one expresses the unequivocal tenure of land and all rights over it, while the
other refers to the mere receipt of soke dues.
Since sake and soke expressed such
unequivocal rights, it is not surprising that it was the ultimate datum of
legal title in 1086. Tenure was frequently established by reference to it where
there was a dispute. Thus, Gilbert de Ghent held a manor in succession to Tonna
in Willoughby (-in-the-Marsh) (Lincs.), with berewicks in Mumby, Hasthorpe,
Sloothby, and Willoughby, and soke in Welton and Boothby. Apart from the
relatively large number of berewicks, there is little remarkable about the
account of the estate except for a comment that the three bovates of inland in
Willoughby were held with sake and soke.[47] By
implication, this somewhat anomalous statement suggests that Tonna, the tenant
of the estate,[48]
did not possess the same liberties in the rest of the manor and, indeed, it
appears that they were enjoyed by Gilbert's predecessor, Ulf Fenisc. Thus,
Count Alan claimed the berewick of Mumby, but the jury declared that Gilbert's
predecessor had held it with sake and soke.[49]
Although in the possession of Tonna in 1066, the tenant-in-chief had undisputed
right to the land and soke of the berewick in 1086 because Ulf had enjoyed sake
and soke over it before the Conquest.[50]
Since the overlord had full rights over extended groups of estates, it is
evident that, as within the manor, dues could not be unilaterally withdrawn by
the tenant. The genesis of many manors,
then, was clearly related to seigneurial initiative. Vestiges of the process
can be identified in Domesday Book. It is often clear that large dispersed
sokes, a common feature of the tenurial landscape of the North,[51]
were formerly of greater extent, for their structure is reflected in the
constitution of surrounding estates. The appurtenances of the manor of Laxton,
for example, were situated in the same vills as the sokeland of the king's
estate of Grimston [52]which
was associated with the manor of Mansfield (figure 13). The two estates had
clearly constituted a single unit at an earlier period, and it seems likely
that Toki son of Outi's liberties of sake
and soke, toll and team in Laxton were ultimately derived from the
larger whole.[53]
Some groups of manors may have been related to sokes in the same way. The soke
of Oswaldbeck extended into fifteen vills in the north of Nottinghamshire, and
Roger de Bully held manors in seven of them (figure 10). His estates almost
certainly formed an extended group -
five are multiple manor entries, while the incidental notice of sake and soke
in Fenton and Clarborough implies that those dues were normally reserved to an
overlord[54]
- and
were evidently related to the soke. It would appear that a single estate
had been divided element by element to form two separate interests.[55]
A memory of the process survived as late as 1275 for a jury declared that all
the fees in the wapentake of Oswaldbeck had formerly belonged to the soke.[56]
Since the form of the whole was retained in the parts, the division must
clearly have been made by the lord. Indeed, a writ of 1060×1065 issued by
Edward the Confessor, the lord of Oswaldbeck, probably effected the final
removal of the archbishop of York's manor of Laneham from the soke.[57]
It seems likely that division could not be made without the possession of sake
and soke, and the lord's interest in land was clearly passed on to the new
lord.[58]
Figure 13:
the interlocking estates of Grimston and
Laxton.
|
MANSFIELD |
|
LAXTON |
1. |
Warsop |
|
|
2. |
Clown |
|
|
3. |
Carburton |
|
|
4. |
Clumber |
|
|
5. |
Budby |
|
|
6. |
Thoresby |
|
|
7. |
Scofton |
|
|
8. |
Perlethorpe |
|
|
9. |
Rayton |
|
|
10. |
Edwinstowe |
|
|
11 |
Grimston |
|
|
12. |
Eakring |
4. |
Eakring |
13. |
Maplebeck |
|
|
14. |
Besthorpe |
8. |
Besthorpe |
15. |
Carlton(-on-Trent) |
9. |
Carlton(-on-Trent) |
16. |
Kirton |
1. |
Kirton |
17. |
Willoughby |
2. |
Willoughby |
18. |
Walesby |
3. |
Walesby |
19. |
Ompton |
5. |
Ompton |
20. |
Carlton(-in-Lindrick) |
|
|
|
|
6. |
Knapthorpe |
|
|
7. |
Caunton |
NOTE: the numbers
represent the order in which the place-names occur in Domesday Book.
Knapthorpe and Caunton appear in the soke of Laxton in the position of
Maplebeck. All three vills are adjacent to each other and may formerly have
constituted a single element in the estate of Mansfield. |
Sake and soke seems to have
expressed rights to all of these services and exactions. Not all, however, were
rendered to the same hall for the lord could give certain tributary dues to his
men. It is probably this process that resulted in the formation of individual
manors held by subordinate tenants within the lordship of a superior. It is
clear from explicit notice and the basic arrangement of the Domesday text that
sokeland belonged to the tenant's manorial hall, but he did not necessarily
have the soke, qua jurisdiction, of
the land. As we have seen, that was frequently, probably always, vested in the
overlord. Thus, the marginal S and soca
of this type of entry clearly does not imply that the caput had the profits of justice. The device merely indicates that
the land was of the type which rendered
dues. A simple generic contrast with demesne is all
that is intended. It is evident, then, that only part of the tributary dues
were diverted to the tenant - this almost certainly included the labour dues
and probably also the customs or farm, the essential characteristics of terra. Such services, however, were but
the delegated right of the overlord, and the tenant rendered a farm for the
privilege of enjoying them. The value of the manor as recorded in Domesday Book
was almost certainly the sum he paid. As we have seen, the figure is glossed as
consuetudines in one entry in the
Nottinghamshire folios, and the value of one estate is frequently said to
belong to another in circuit 6.[76] In
Derbyshire, indeed, the value of the manor of Osmaston was rendered to both the
king and Henry de Ferrers, in the proportion of two to one, just like any other
royal farm which was shared between the king and the earl.[77]
The Domesday manor in its essentials was evidently not an economic unit. It was
merely a convenient device for the interception of delegated tributary dues.
Nevertheless, demesne, which was tilled by a villein population, was frequently
attached to it. This was the nucleus from which economic manorialisation could
grow.[78]
The process outlined above explains
the origins of many manors and groups of manors in Nottinghamshire, The
widespread distribution of large sokes and interlocking estates structures [79]suggests
that it was of common occurrence. It is not the only possible mechanism of
estate formation, however. Professor Sawyer has argued that the distribution of
some Danish place-names with a personal name as a first element in
the vicinity of large estate centres suggests that some independent
manors in the East Midlands owe their existence to the piecemeal disintegration
of extensive sokes under the impact of Danish colonisation.[80]
Further, as attractive as the idea may be, we have no grounds for assuming that
the whole of Nottinghamshire, or the North come to that, was originally
composed of a small number of multiple estates.[81] In
densely wooded areas there is at least the distinct possibility that many
settlements and estates owe their existence to more or less independent
assarting of forest and waste. Some of the small manors of Nottinghamshire may
well have been shaped by such a process. This does not in itself imply a great
deal of freedom, such as is found in the mediaeval fenlands of eastern England.[82]
But it may suggest a sizeable class of small independent lords who were free to
commend themselves to whomsoever they wished. A fusion model of estate
development is therefore not precluded by the existence of a mechanism of
fission. The process may, indeed, be responsible for the formation of some
pre-Conquest groups of manors. As is evident from many pre-Conquest charters
and wills in which more than one estate was granted, once land was booked, it
could be divided or amalgamated with other estates at will. In Scarsdale
Wapentake in Derbyshire, for example, Wulfric Spot bequeathed a large number of
small discrete estates to Morcar in 1002×1004, and in 1066 they appear to have
formed a dispersed group of manors held by Leofnoth, the predecessor of Ralf
son of Hubert.[83]
The individual elements of an extended group in 1066, then, may have come into
being in completely different tenurial contexts. Any assessment of the relative
importance of fission and fusion in the genesis of eleventh-century estates
must, however, await further research on settlement patterns and estate
structures.
Regardless
of the origins of his estates, the tenant-in-chief's title to his land in 1086
was founded upon a well established legal theory. It was derived from a
predecessor who generally held his estates and their appurtenances by book. The
term sake and soke, with its connotations of full rights, effectively expresses
the widespread powers which he enjoyed in his lands. It is not surprising,
then, that it was the datum of title - the proven tenure of the franchise
dispelled all counter claims - and excluded the king and his officers from
the-day-to-day running of the estate. The list of immunists appended to the
Nottinghamshire Domesday, although demonstrably incomplete,[84]
there-fore provides something of a guide to the predecessors of the Norman
tenants-in-chief.[85]
Nevertheless, this was probably not its primary purpose. As part of the shire
customal, as in similar lists in the Lincolnshire and Yorkshire folios,[86]
it was clearly also intended to provide a record of royal dues. The
holder of bookland had duties, such as military service, as well as privileges,
and his continued tenure depended upon successful performance.[87]
If he failed, he forfeited his land directly to the king and the earl, although
in Nottinghamshire his wife and heirs were entitled to a moiety.[88]
The list is evidently a record of the king's rights to such forfeitures rather
than a memorandum of liberties per se.[89]
In the next chapter, we shall examine how these dues relate to the common system of royal administration and
local government in the shire.
[1] Thus, the value of the hall was that of the whole manor with its
appurtenances (TMS, 32-4, 57-9).
[2] See chapter 4.
[3] 'Jurisdiction' and 'full jurisdiction' have been employed in Notts. DB, but, as will become clear in
the following analysis, the phrases are positively misleading. See G. Black, D.
R. Roffe, The Nottinghamshire Domesday: a
Reader's Guide, Nottingham 1986, 24-5.
[4] Lincs. DB, 71/9; 69/20; C. A.
Joy, Sokeright, unpublished thesis,
Leeds University 1974. 70-77.
[5] Lincs. DB, 70/18.
[6] See chapter 4.
[7] Notts. DB, 9,113; 128. 20,6.
30,39.
[8] The most recent discussions can be found in Joy, Sokeright, C. Stephenson, 'Commendation and Related Problems in
Domesday Book', EHR 59, (1944), and
A. K. G. Kristensen, 'Danelaw Institutions and Danish Society in the Viking
Age', Medieval Scandinavia 8, (1975),
74-85.
[9] TMS, 1-55; Lincs. DB, xxvi-xxviii; Documents Illustrative of the Social
and Economic History of the Danelaw, London 1920; The Free Peasantry of the
Northern Danelaw, Oxford 1969; 'The Danes in England', Preparatory to
Anglo-Saxon England, ed. D. M. Stenton, Oxford 1970, 136-65.
[10] The term 'forinsec soke' is coined by analogy with forinsec service in
a feudal context, but no identity of relationship is intended. Forinseca soca is used in mediaeval
sources of part of the soke of Chesterfield in Derbyshire (PR 1197, 150). However, it probably refers to the land outside of the town. A foreign jury,
used in this sense, existed at Gainsborough into the modern period (A. Stark, The History and Antiquities of Gainsborough,
London 1843, 91, 532. See also Black, Roffe, Nottinghamshire Domesday, 19).
[11] Notts. DB, 9,47; 48; 118.
11,15-17; 21. 12,22. 13,5; 13. 17,13; 14. 30,26; 44; 49; 55.
[12] Notts. DB, 9,47; 48.
[13] High values are often associated with such entries. Thus, two bovates
in Farnsfield were worth eight shillings to Walter de Aincurt in 1086, even
though the soke belonged to the archbishop of York in Southwell (Notts. DB, 11, 17). Where a
tenant-in-chief only had title to the soke, the land was normally enrolled with
the land of the king's thanes. Canute, for example, held two bovates of land in
Misson which were soke of Kirton (in Lindsey), and they are described with his
manor in the same vill (Notts. DB,
30,44). Likewise, the two manors of Aelfric and Brown appear in the same breve, even though the soke belonged to
William Peverel's manor of Wollaton (Notts.
DB, 30,55).
[14] Apart from land attached to the large sokes, the relationship does not
generally appear in the records at all. Soke, qua jurisdiction, was evidently a minor due.
[15] The land passed to Blyth Priory.
[16] Lincs. DB, 36/4.
[17] Yorks. DB, CW11-14; see also Lincs. DB, 69/11,14,29,35; 70/3,8,12,
15,21,29; 71/6; 72/6,7,17,60; Hunts. DB,
D4; 15-7; 29.
[18] Joy, Sokeright, 78-9.
[19] See chapter 4.
[20] Lincs. DB, p13.
[21] Lincs. DB, 72/35.
[22] Lincs. DB, 58/1-8.
[23] Notts. DB, 25,1.
[24] Lincs. DB, 72/27.
[25] See chapter 9.
[26] Notts. DB, 9,46-8.
[27] Notts. DB, 9,118.
[28] TMS, 43; Lincs. DB, 64/1-14.
[29] TMS, 32-4; D. R. Roffe, The Derbyshire Domesday, Darley Dale
1986, 22; Black, Roffe, Nottinghamshire
Domesday, 28.
[30] Sokeland, nevertheless, was sometimes held by an individual other than
the lord of the manor. Grim held two bovates of land in Watnall which were
apparently soke of Siward's manor in the same vill (Notts. DB, 10,45). Just how common this was, cannot be determined.
Subtenancies are often inadvertently noted in the Clamores, while there is no indication in the text that the land
was not ordinary, untenanted, sokeland. Thus, Bertor, Summerd, Godric, and
Siward held land in Mablethorpe (Lincs.) of Earl Harold's soke of Greetham, but
the fact is only explicit because the bishop of Durham and William Blund made
claims to the estate (Lincs. DB,
13/7; 69/15). The Domesday commissioners were clearly not interested in the
phenomenon for it probably had no bearing on title.
[31] Stenton, Free Peasantry of the Northern Danelaw.
[32] Stephenson, 'Commendation', 297n., 308n.
[33] G. Platts, Land and People in Medieval Lincolnshire, Lincoln 1985,
59-66.
[34] Some at least of the twelfth-century grants of free peasants, cited by
Stenton in support of his thesis, were subsequently confirmed by their lords,
See, for example, Danelaw Charters,
nos 538, 540, and Free Peasantry, no.
118. Grant by charter is no reliable indication of freedom; see Carte Nativorum: a Peterborough Abbey
Cartulary of the Fourteenth Century, eds C. N. L. Brooke, M. M. Postan,
Northampton 1960.
[35] See chapter 4.
[36] Notts. DB, 10,35. 30,55. In
1198 the two manors are probably represented by the fee of Robert le Passeis
which was held in chief by sergeancy (BF,
8).
[37] F. E. Harmer, Anglo-Saxon Writs,
Manchester 1952, no. 119. For the identification of the estate, see below.
[38] DBB, 84; Lincs. DB, xxxvii.
[39] These privileges were probably no different in kind from sake and soke.
Thus, in Lincoln all the lawmen had sake and soke over their lands, but Ulf son
of Suertebrand had in addition toll and team (Lincs. DB, p3/1). It seems that the extended phrase includes the regalian
dues of holding a markets and collecting tolls within a fee, liberties which
the crown had tried to centralise in the borough and wapentake (Lincs. DB, xxix; see chapters 6 and 8).
[40] Notts. DB, S5; Yorks. DB, C36; Lincs. DB, xxxix.
[41] By the very nature of kingship, no one was outside of the king's soke.
The so-called trinoda necessitas was
always reserved (E. John, Land Tenure in
Early England, Leicester 1960, 64, 73), and forfeitures were made to the
king and earl. Hence, it is stated in the Nottinghamshire folios that 'If a
thane who has sake and soke should forfeit his land, the king and the earl
between them have half his land and his money; his lawful wife, with his lawful
heirs, if any, have the other half' (Notts.
DB, S4). Such forfeitures were probably made in the wapentake for, although
his land might be withdrawn, the lord himself was still obliged to pay suit on
his own behalf. See chapters 6 and 8.
[42] See chapter 6.
[43] Hunts. DB, D14.
[44] Lincs. DB, 12/76; 73/5.
[45] Lincs. DB, 69/28; 71/14. In both
cases, a Norman tenant-in-chief merely claimed soke over land, even though his
predecessor had enjoyed sake and soke in the estate. It was on the basis of
these two solitary entries that Stenton postulated the identity of the terms
sake and soke, and soke (Lincs. DB,
xxxvii). As they stand, both are highly exceptional and cannot be easily
reconciled with the usage found throughout the rest of circuit 6. However, it
may be supposed that there was some unrecorded transaction which conferred
rights to land between 1066 and 1086, or that the scribe was simply in error.
Given the similarity of the terms, and the fact that the compiler must have had
far more information in front of him concerning the liberties than appears in
the text, confusion would not be surprising. Indeed, it can sometimes be
directly observed. In a Lincolnshire Clamores
entry relating to Osbournby, the curious term soca et soca appears (Lincs.
DB, 72/53). This is clearly nonsense, and the editors have emended the text
to saca et soca. How-ever, it is
clearly soca alone which is intended
for the liberty entitled Ralf Pagenel to a horse from the land when he went to
war. Such rights are always expressed in terms of soke (see, for example, Lincs. DB, 26/45). Likewise, the
statement that Countess Godiva had sake and soke over Newark Wapentake is not only illogical, but
also patently untrue since the Abbey of Peterborough had the same liberties in
Collingham within the same wapentake (Notts.
DB, S5; see chapter 6).
[46] Lincs. DB, 69/16.
[47] Lincs. DB, 24/54-60.
[48] Tonna was also a tenant of Ulf Fenisc, Gilbert de Ghent's pre-decessor,
in Baumber and Edlington (Lincs. DB,
24/16,20; 69/23,33). Although clearly an undertenant, he must have been of some
considerable importance for he held land in at least nine counties before the
Conquest. The power and wealth of 'mesne' tenancies were probably not an
exclusively Anglo-Norman phenomenon.
[49] Lincs. DB, 69/18.
[50] Such explicit examples are rare, but see Lincs. DB, 38/3-7. Robert the Steward held a manor in Scrivelsby,
with berewicks in Coningsby and Wilksby, and soke in Mareham (-upon-the-Hill).
It had been held by Siward in 1066, who also had nine acres of arable and
eight acres of woodland in (Wood) Enderby with sake and soke. This parcel of land
was apparently part of the estate, but the exceptional notice of sake and soke
suggests that Siward was not so privileged in the rest of the manor. Indeed,
Robert claimed title to soke in Coningsby through Achi, his predecessor, who
held his estates with sake and soke, toll and team (Lincs. DB, p13; 69/34).
[51] For the most recent discussion of the institution, see W. E. Kapelle, The Norman Conquest of the North, London
1979, 50-85.
[52] Grimston is at one point called
a berewick of Mansfield, but in a duplicate entry is termed a manor (Notts. DB, 1,17; 27). The anomaly is
discussed in chapter 9.
[53] Notts. DB, S5. 12,1-10.
[54] Notts. DB, 112; 127.
Sparrowhawk held his land with sake and soke, but without a hall.
[55] Although seemingly attached to the manor of Mansfield, the soke of
Oswaldbeck probably constituted a separate royal manor in 1086. Its Domesday
form may merely reflect its management in the late eleventh century as one of a
groups of royal estate which were farmed by a single reeve. The management of
the king's estates in Hamenstan
Wapentake in Derbyshire is a direct parallel (Derbys. DB, 1,15; 29). See chapter 9.
[56] RH ii, 25. Reference is also
made to the soke of Bassetlaw.
[57] Harmer, Anglo-Saxon Writs, no.
119. Edward the Confessor quit all the land of the archbishop of York in
Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire which had belonged to the king's soke. Since
Southwell and Sutton were held by book (ECNE,
111-2), it seems likely that the archbishop's estates in Oswaldbeck are, inter alia, referred to. For the nature
of the soke in this context, see chapter 8.
[58] The process can be directly observed in the Lincolnshire Domesday. The
estate of Godwin, which had the same structure as the soke of Bolingbroke, was
divided between his sons Siwate, Alnod, Fenchel, and Aschil (Lincs. DB, 69/38; 70/30). Siwate 'was
the king's man', and his land passed to
Eudo son of Spirewic with sake and soke. The bishop of Durham succeeded to the
rest, likewise with sake and soke. Godwin almost certainly held the same
liberties, although the fact is not explicit in the text, and it seems likely
that the division of the estate in such a way that it passed to two Norman
tenants-in-chief was only possible because of these privileges. There was
probably some arrangement like the division of Siwate's estate in the wapentake
of Horncastle: his demesne land was shared by his three sons Harold, Godevert,
and Alfric, but the soke was only divided between two of them. Subsequently, the estate passed to two
tenants-in-chief (Lincs. DB, 3/10;
29/1; 69/20-1). By way of contrast, the four manors of Ingemund and his
brothers were probably not held with sake and soke - enrolled in one entry,
they were presumably the right of an overlord (see chapter 4) - and therefore
all went to Count Alan (Lincs. DB,
12/31; 70/26).
[59] John, Early Land Tenure,
42-3. If tenure by book conferred something akin to 'freehold', as John
suggests, then a lord could presumably transfer his interests without further
sanction. However, a grantee probably felt it in his interest to obtain his own
book to guard against the claims of the grantor's family. Exchanges of land
between predecessors and tenants-in-chief were apparently an official matter.
See, for example, Lincs. DB, 72/13,
19.
[60] DBB, 282.
[61] Various terms are used, but the type of estate is found throughout the
country. See J. E. A. Jolliffe, 'A Survey of Fiscal Tenements', EcHR, 1st ser. 6, (1935-6), 157-71;
Jolliffe, 'Northumbrian Institutions', EHR
41, (1926), 1-42; G. R. J. Jones, 'Multiple Estates and Early Settlement', Medieval Settlement: Continuity and Change,
ed. P. H. Sawyer, London 1976, 15-40; Kapelle, Norman Conquest of the North, 50-86. See also chapter 9.
[62] See above.
[63] TMS, 21-2.
[64] TMS, 22-8.
[65] TMS, 22-4, 92-4.
[66] Notts. DB, 9,49.
[67] Chronicon Petroburgense, ed.
T. Stapleton, London 1849, 157-83; Mon.
Ang. v, 434; TMS, 25-7.
[68] Sokemen of the abbot of Peterborough's manor of Scotter in Lincolnshire
performed day work (Chronicon,
164-5). This, however, was not the norm in the abbey's estates. In Derbyshire,
sokemen, and tenants of similar status, are consistently omitted from Domesday
Book (Roffe, Derbyshire Domesday,
18-9), but their services, as recorded in the early twelfth-century surveys of
the estates of Burton Abbey, are almost identical with those of the more normal
sokemen (C. G. O. Bridgeman, 'The Burton Abbey Twelfth-Century Surveys', Collections for a History of Staffordshire,
William Salt Archaeological Society 1916, 212-47).
[69] Jolliffe, 'Northumbrian Institutions', 6.
[70] TMS, 35-7.
[71] Notts. DB, 1,32; TMS, 35-7.
[72] ECNE, 112-3; TMS, 37-8.
[73] TMS, 28-30.
[74] Lincs. DB, 26/45; 51/12.
[75] Lincs. DB, 57/43.
[76] See above and chapter 4.
[77] Derbys. DB, 6,88. Henry was
apparently not the earl at this time, but he succeeded to many of the
pre-Conquest comital estates and interests (Roffe, Derbyshire Domesday, 12).
[78] See chapter 9.
[79] See chapters 8 and 9.
[80] P. H. Sawyer, 'Some Sources for the History of Viking North-umbria', Viking Age York, ed. R. A. Hall, London
1978, 7. It may be doubted, however, that all the cases that he cites are in
fact piecemeal. Personal names attached to settlement elements may imply some
kind of unprecedented lordship over a parcel of land. However, the extensive
evidence for ordered division suggests that there was still an overlord who
retained rights in the new estate.
[81] M. W. Bishop, 'Multiple Estates in Late Anglo-Saxon Nottingham-shire', TTS 85, (1981), 42-7; Jolliffe, 'Fiscal
Tenements' 157-71.
[82] H. E. Hallam, Settlement and Society: a Study of the Early Agrarian
History of South Lincolnshire, Cambridge1965, 200-5.
[83] ECNE, 109; Derbys. DB, 10,1-10; Roffe, Derbyshire Domesday, 12.
[84] There are four instances where a pre-Conquest lord is said to have sake
and soke, but does not appear in the list (Notts.
DB, 9,113; 128. 20,6. 30,39). Morcar, probably the earl of Mercia, had toll
in Gunthorpe, although, again, his liberties are not apparent from the shire
customs. Many important lords were seemingly disenfranchised in the same way.
In fact, however, the Domesday scribes were probably not particularly
interested in the information. It only appears in the Yorkshire, Lincolnshire,
and Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire folios, and appears to have been enrolled
without great care (Lincs. DB,
xxxix). Many lords, then, were probably omitted.
[85] Notts. DB, S5.
[86] Lincs. DB, p13; Yorks. DB, C36.
[87] R. Abels, 'Bookland and Fyrd Service in Late Saxon England', Anglo-Norman Studies VII: Proceedings of the
Battle Conference 1884, ed. R. A. Brown, Woodbridge 1985, 1-15.
[88] Notts. DB, S4.
[89] Lincs. DB, xxxix. The
information is probably derived from a survey of royal lands and rights alone
(see chapter 3), and was probably enrolled without very much purpose.