No one can glance at these passages without perceiving that dere, vendere, and recedere are all interchangeably used, and that even any two of them (whether they have the conjunction "et" or the disjunction "vel" between them) are identical with any one. It would be possible to collect almost any number of instances in point. Further, the insertion or omission of the phrase "sine" (or "absque ") 'ejus licentia" is immaterial, it being understood where not expressed. So too with the words "cui voluit." In short, like the translators to whom we owe the Authorized Version, the Domesday scribes appear to have revelled in the use of synonym and paraphrase." Our own conceptions of the sacredness of a text and of the need for verbal accuracy were evidently foreign to their minds. Glancing for a moment at another county, we have in the Survey of Leicestershire a remarkable instance of a whole fief being entered twice over. It is that of Robert Hostiarius: "de appulatione navis " (I.C.C.) = "de theloneo retis" (D.B.). Alteration of the Wording 27 dominio et iii. serv[os] et viii. villani cum i. bordario habentes ii. car. Idem Turstinus tenet de Roberto in Clachestone iiii. car. terræ et Tetbald[us] ii. car. terræ. Ibi est in dominio i. caruca et iii. sochemanni et v. villani et iiii. (sic) bordarii cum iii. carucis et i. servo. Ibi xiii. acræ prati. Valuit et valet totum xx. solidos. Has terras tenuerunt T.R.E Outi et Arnui cum saca et soca Here the last two entries (both relating to Claxton) have been boldly thrown into one in the second version, which also (though omitting the number of ploughlands) gives additional information in the name of Robert's father, and in those of his predecessors T.R.E. This is thus an excellent illustration of the liberty allowed themselves by the compilers of Domesday. An instance on a smaller scale is found in the Survey of Cambridgeshire, where we read on opposite pages :— In Witelesfeld hund'. In histetone jacet Wara de i. hida et dimidia de M. Cestreforde et est in Exsesse appreciata, hanc terram tenuit Algarus comes (i. 189 b). In Witelesf' h'd. In histetune jac' Wara de hida et dimidia de Cestres' man. et est appreciata in Exexe. Algar comes tenuit (i. 190). The second entry has been deleted as a duplicate, but it serves to show us that the scribes, even when free from error, were no mere copyists." "Compare the I.C.C. version on p. 116, infra. III. " "SOCA" AND "THEINLAND." The extracts I have given above establish beyond a doubt the existence among the "sochemanni" of two kinds of tenure. We have (1) those who were free to part with (vendere) and leave (recedere) their land, (2) those who were not, ie. who could not do so without the abbot's licence. This distinction is reproduced in two terms which I will now examine. In the Inquisitio Eliensis and the documents connected with it there is much mention of the "thegnlands" of the Abbey. These lands are specially distinguished from "sokeland" (terra de soca). Both, of course, are distinct from the "dominium." Thus in one of the Conqueror's writs we read : Restituantur ecclesiæ terræ que in dominio suo erant die obitus Eduardi. . . . Qui autem tenent theinlandes que procul dubio debent teneri de ecclesia faciant concordiam cum abbate quam meliorem poterint, Hoc quoque de tenentibus socam et sacam fiat." Now this distinction between thegnland" and "sokeland" will be found to fit in exactly with the difference in tenure we have examined above. Here is an instance from the "breve abbatis" in the record of Guy de Raimbecurt's aggressions: In melreda ii. hidas et dim. virg. In meldeburne ii. hidas et dim." et dim. virg. Hoc est iiii. hidas et iii. virg. Ex his sunt i. virg. et dim. thainlande et iiii. hidas et dim. 48 de soca. On reference to the two Manors in question, there is, at first sight, nothing in the I.C.C., the I.E., or Domesday to distinguish the "thegnland" from the "sokeland." Of the Ing. Com. Cant., pp. xviii., xix. "Et dimidiam" [hidam] is omitted in B, and (oddly enough) in Domesday itself. 4 All three MSS. err here, as the reading should clearly be "dim. virg.” Sokemen and their Tenure 29 first holding we read that it had been held T.R.E. by 10 sochemanni "de soca S. Edelride"; of the second, that it was held by "viii. sochemanni. . . homines abbatis de Ely." But closer examination of the I.C.C. reveals, in the former case, this distinction : De his ii. hidis et dimidia virga tenuit i. istorum unam virgam et dimidiam. Non potuit dare nec vendere absque licentia abbats. Sed alii novem potuerunt recedere et vendere cui voluerunt. 49 Here then we identify the virgate and a half of "theinland"-though held by a sochemannus-and this same distinction of tenure proves to be the key throughout. Thus, for instance, in the same document "Herchenger pistor" is recorded to have seized "in Hardwic i. hidam thainlande et dim. hidam et vi. acras de soca" (p. 177). Reference to the I.C.C., D.B., and the I.E reveals that the former holding had belonged to "v. sochemanni homines abbatis de ely," and that "isti non potuerunt dare neque vendere alicui extra ecclesiam S. Edeldride ely."50 But the latter holding had belonged to a sochemannus, of whom it is said-" homo abbatis de ely fuit: potuit recedere, sed socam ejus abbas habuit." "1 This enables us to understand the distinctions found in the summaries appended to the Cambridgeshire portion of the I.E., and recorded in the Breve Abbatis. Indeed they confirm the above distinction, for the formula they apply to holders "de soca abbatie ely" is: "illi qui hanc 49 b. 65, This distinction between the one and the nine, but not the size of the holding, is preserved in D.B.; while the I.E., though preserving it, gives the numbers as two and eight. 50 This is the I.E. and D.B. version. For "extra ecclesiam," the I.C.C. substitutes "sine ejus [abbatis] licentia." “ 'Soca remansit abbati" is the D.B. and I.E. version. It should be noted that the I.E. and Breve Abbatis give "herchenger pistor" as the despoiler, while the I.C.C. and D.B. record him only as a "miles" of Picot the sheriff. This is a case which certainly suggests special local knowledge in the compiler of the former documents, who also gives the sokeman's name-Siward. |