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SOCAGE

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 300 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SOCAGE , a See also:

free See also:tenement held in See also:fee See also:simple by services of an economic See also:kind, such as the See also:payment of See also:rent or the performance of some agricultural See also:work, was termed in See also:medieval See also:English See also:law a socage tenement. In a See also:borough a similar holding was called a See also:burgage tenement. Medieval law books derived the See also:term from socus, ploughshare, and took it to denote primarily agricultural work. This is clearly a misconception. The term is derived from O. Eng. See also:soc, which means primarily suit, but can also signify See also:jurisdiction and a See also:franchise See also:district. Historically two See also:principal periods may be distinguished in the See also:evolution of the See also:tenure. At the See also:close of the Anglo-Saxon See also:epoch we find a See also:group of freemen differentiated from the See also:ordinary ceorls because of their greater See also:independence and better See also:personal See also:standing. They are classified as sokemen in opposition to the See also:villani in Domesday See also:Book, and are chiefly to be found in the Danelaw and in See also:East Anglia. There can hardly be a doubt that previously most of the Saxon ceorls in other parts of See also:England enjoyed a similar See also:condition. In consequence of the See also:Norman See also:Conquest and of the formation of the See also:common law the tenure was See also:developed into the lowest See also:form of See also:freehold. Legal See also:protection in the public courts for the tenure and services deemed certain, appear as its characteristic feature in contrast to villainage.

Certainty and legal protectiop were so essential that even villain holdings were treated as villain socage when legal protection was obtainable for it, as was actually the See also:

case with the peasants on See also:Ancient See also:demesne who could See also:sue their lords by the little See also:writ of right and the Monstraverunt. The Old English origins of the tenure are still apparent even at this See also:time in the shape of some of its incidents, especially in the See also:absence of feudal wardship and See also:marriage. Minors inheriting socage come under the guardianship not of the See also:lord but of the nearest male relative not entitled to See also:succession. An heiress in socage was free to See also:contract marriage without the interference of the lord. Customs of succession were also See also:peculiar in many cases of socage tenure, and the feudal See also:rule of See also:primogeniture was not generally enforced. See also:Commutation, the enfranchisement of copyholds, and the abolition of military tenures in the reign of See also:Charles II. led to a See also:gradual absorption of socage in the See also:general class of freehold tenures. See See also:Pollock and See also:Maitland, See also:History of English Law, i. 271 ff.; F. W. Maitland, Domesday Book and Beyond, 66 ff. ; P. See also:Vinogradoff, Villainage in England, 113 if., 196 ff.; English Society in the 11th See also:Century, 431 if.

(P.

End of Article: SOCAGE

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