A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK sokeman as primarily a free peasant tied to the soil and unable to ' recede with his land,' though he also reminds us that ' ultimately the central notion in the socman's position is his subjection to soke.'**" Thus a man could be indifferently described as a ' sokeman ' and as ' in the soke ' of the Abbot of Ely.*" Reference is made to the services performed by Suffolk sokemen in the record of the famous Ely placitum.^^ Here we read of the sokemen {socamans) of St. Etheldreda at Melton, in Carlford Hundred, that ' they belonged so fully {ita proprie) to the Abbot ' that they had to go forth {ire) whenever the reeve of the monastery commanded, and pay fines for all offences {pmnem rei emendationem per solvere) , and if one of them wished to sell any of his possessions, he had first to get permission from the reeve. At Brandon, Lisois de Moustiers held six socamans, of whom we are told ' arabunt et c'terent (sic) messes ejusdem loci quotienscunque abbas precepit,' while others again ploughed, weeded (purgabunt) , and reaped {colligent segetes), carried the monks' food to the monastery, provided horses for the abbot when he needed them, and paid fines to him for their own offences and those of their subordinates (' de omnibus illis qui in terris eorum deliquerint ').*"' In conclusion, if we glance at the distribution of sokemen in Suffolk we see that they are most numerous in the hundreds of Blackbourn and Stow, where there are about 152 and 98 respectively; from 30 to 40 are found in each of the hundreds of Thingoe, Lackford, Risbridge, Babergli, Hartismere, Bishop's, Wangford, and Bradmere ; between 20 and 30 in Bosmere Hundred, under 20 but over 10 in the hundreds of Loes, Samford, and Wilford, and in Cosford Half-hundred, 10 in Carlford Hundred, and under 10 in the hundreds of Blything, Plomesgate, Claydon, and Thedwastre, while they are altogether absent from Colneis Hundred, where there were many freemen, and from the half-hundreds of Parham, Lothingland, and Ipswich. The sokemen, like the freemen, were depressed by the Conquest, and we see Roger the Sheriff treating them in a very high-handed fashion on the king's manor of Thorney, removing them, and granting them out to new lords, while at Hintlesham, Suart, Stigand's sokeman, had been replaced by the Frenchman, Ralph ; at Framlingham, Walter of Caen had succeeded the sokewoman leva ; and on the manor of Bergholt the number of sokemen had fallen from 210 to 1 19.*^" For the unfree peasantry in Suffolk a few words will suffice, as they present no specially distinctive features. They include villani and dimidii villani, who are closely bound up with the cultivation of the arable, and with the village economy ; bordarii, dimidii bordarii, and homines bordarii, cottagers or crofters, often serving under freemen on the small Suffolk manors ; and servi, who form less than a twentieth of the recorded population.*" Four bovarii are also mentioned, and four smiths, who, however, are counted as freemen, with "" Dom. Bk. 282, Stonham ; ' Iste socmannus non poterat recedere' ; 353, 'Nordberia' ; 364^, ' Elmes- wella.' VinogradofF, op. cit. 433-5,et seq. Cf. the Suffolk cases cited in the notes. Ci. M.zt-ad, Dom, Bk, and Beyond ; Index, * FreizUgigkeit ' ; cf. Round, Feud. Engl, 28 et seq. "' Ante, n. 387. "" Ing. Co. Camb. (ed. Hamilton), 193, 194. Round, op. cit. 32, 33 ; Maitland, op. cit. 77. "' Ing. Co. Camb. (ed. Hamilton;, 193-5. Cf. ' Suthburna,' ' Kycestuna ' (Kingston), ' Berham,' ' Kars- flet ' ; ' 4 homines qui tantum debent servire abbati cum propriis equis in omnibus necessitatibus suis.' Cf. Maitland, op. cit. 77. 'We observe that the sokemen of the east like the radmen of the west have horses.' Cf ' Drincestune '; Inq. Co. Camb. 194, ' 15 socamans ... 6 homines de soca.'
- "" Dom. Bk. lilb, 287, 295^, 296, 3251J, 425, Boulge; where a villein's name is given ; VinogradofF,
op. cit. 442 et seq. '" Ellis, Introd. to Domesday, ii, 488 et seq. 406
