Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/465

 DOMESDAY SURVEY against him before the Bishop of St. L6.'"' The famous Suffolk plea in which Brungar, a freeman commended to Robert Wimarc's son, was tried for having stolen horses in his house,"^ brings us to another thread in the ' labyrinthine web of legal relationships,' '*' the tie of * sac and soke,' for while Brungar was ' commended ' to Robert Wimarc's son, the Abbot of St. Edmunds had the sac and soke over him, and these conflicting claims led to litigation which was only ended by a compromise. The subject of sac and soke, too vast to be more than touched on here, is well illustrated by the Suffolk Domesday. Soke over persons and land was distinct from com- mendation, and could be held and granted separately."' It could even be divided, as at Thornham, where the Abbot of St. Edmunds had three-quarters of the soke and the king had the fourth quarter."" From Suffolk Professor Maitland takes two cases to prove that the lord had not always soke over his villeins."^ To these may be added the case at Mendlesham and Cotton, where the hundred bore witness that the king and the earl had soke and sac in King Edward's time over the freemen in Cotton, who had been added to the Mendlesham manor, and the men of the vill testified that Burchard, the lord of the manor, had soke alike over freemen and villeins."' In Suffolk, too, are found admirable examples of territorial soke, and of private soke, and hundredal soke, annexed to a royal manor, or granted to an important religious house or to a great magnate. The soke of the hundred and a half of Samford belonged to the king's manor of Bergholt."' The Confessor had granted the soke over eight and a half hundreds to St. Edmund's Abbey."* St. Etheldreda of Ely had the soke over five and a half hundreds,"" and the Bishop of Thetford had soke and sac over the ferting of Elmham, or a quarter of the hundred of Wangford, with the exception of the men of Stigand and of the land and men of St. Edmund, whom Abbot Baldwin claimed."' There are curious instances of local soke at Burstall, where the ' sac ' over the small manor of the freeman Godwin was in Bergholt, ' except for his house and for three acres ' "' at Stoke, where St. Etheldreda had ' half the soke which is beyond the bridge ' ; "' at Buxhall, in Stow Hun- dred, where Lewin Croc had soke and sac over ' the hall and the bordars,* but the soke of the commended freemen was in the hundred ; "' and on Roger Bigot's land in Colneis Hundred, where the Abbey of Ely had the soke •* Dom. Bk. 4043 ; the Ely suit probably belongs to the years 1072-5 ; Round, Teud. Engl. 459 et seq. '" Dom. Bk. 4011J ; Maitland, Dom. Bk. and Beyond, 104 ; Freeman, op. cit. iv, 735. "* Maitland, op. cit. 1 04. "* Dom. Bk. 360^ ; 'Abbas revocat socam de dono regis,' 313 ; VinogradofF, op. cit. 121, n. 5. '" Dom. Bk. 4373 ; cf. 440 ; Vinogradoff, op. cit. 125. "' Dom. Bk. 4083, 4253 ; Dom. Bk. and Beyond, 90, 91. "* Dom. Bk. 285^^ ; above, p. 385. "• Maitland, Dom. Bk. and Beyond, 90-2 ; Vinogradoff, op. cit. 128 et seq. ; Dom. Bk. 287^. '•* These were the hundreds of Risbridge, Lackford, Thingoe, Thedwastre, Blackbourn, and Bradmere,. with the double hundred of Babergh and the half-hundired of Cosford ; Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), ii, 151^, where the names of the hundreds are given ; Chron. Joe. de Brokehnda (Camd. Soc), 42, n. 132 ; Gage,. &uff. i, Introd. ii. '" Dom. Bk. 3853. ; Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), ii, I97<?, where they are named as Carlford, Colneis, Plomesgate, Loes, Wilford, and the half-hundred of Thredling. Thredling Half-hundred, however, is of later date. The abbot's Domesday half-hundred seems to have been Parham ; cf. Maitland, op. cit. 93. For encroachments on these liberties cf. the Ely suit of 1072-5 ; Injuhitio Com. Camb. (ed. Hamilton), 194. "» Dom. Bk. 379. '»' Ibid. 377. "« Ibid. 382^. '" Ibid. 3 50, 3 50^ ; cf. 3493 ; Brockley. Two freemen who could only sell ' in the soke of St. Edmund ' ;, Vinogradoff, op. cit. 131. 387