Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/482

 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK out that the same man may be styled teinus in one entry and liber homo in another, or both liber homo and sochemannus in the same passage.'" Thus ' Alsi, a freeman,' who, as we learn from Domesday Book, was ' added ' with his 30-acre manor to the Abbot of Ely's manor of Winston, and who was in the abbot's ' soke and commendation,' is described in the corresponding entry of the Inquisitio Eliensis as ' freeman ' and ' sokeman in the commenda- tion of St. Etheldreda.' '" No doubt the Suffolk freemen varied greatly in wealth and social standing. Some were large landholders, others were mere peasant occupiers.'** There were degrees of freedom, too, even within the class of freemen. Some, hke St. Edmund's free tenants at Downham, Groton, Rickinghall, and Hepworth, were at liberty to give and sell their land, though they were, as a rule, under the abbot's soke and commendation, and owed service sometimes in manors at some distance from their homes.'*' Or again, they might be less free, in that they could not alienate their land without leave from their lord, as on St. Edmund's estates at Bradfield, Saxham, and Brockley, where some freemen could sell and some could not, and at Little Fakenham."" At Brockley there were two freemen, commended to the king, who might only sell in St. Edmund's soke. At Barton, Fornham, and Roug- ham the free tenants were subjected, in addition to commendation and customary dues {comuetudines), to the peculiarly irksome duty of ' fold-soke,' or bringing their sheep to the abbot's fold, an obligation which is generally regarded as a distinct mark of inferiority.''^ On the other hand, free tenants enjoyed a considerable amount of independence, especially before the Con- quest. They were lords of manors and had tenants, free and unfree, under them, and we gather from a case which occurred in connexion with the out- lawry of Edric of Laxfield that they might be at liberty to choose their own lords. When Edric of Laxfield was reconciled to King Edward, he restored to him his land, and ' gave him writ and seal that whosoever of his commended freemen should wish to return to him they might return.' There was, how- ever, evidently, no compulsion, and it was doubtful whether Edric the free- man had returned to his lord or remained ' in the king's hand.' "^ Appar- ently the freemen who had no other lord were regarded as directly under the king,'" and both before and after the Conquest the king used his authority to make grants of freemen and the royal rights over them to private individuals."* From these grants, from the definite oppression of sheriffs and reeves, and from the encroachments and greed of great men, it came about that the smaller freemen were gradually absorbed into the large fiefs, but the frequent "• Ante, p. 401 ; F.C.H. Nor/, ii, 28-9. "^ Dom. Bk. 383^ ; Inf. El. (Rec. Com.), 525^. Cf. Dom. Bk. 353, 'Nordberia,' where a sokemin appears to be reckoned as a freeman. •^ Vinogradoff, Engl. Soc. in the Eleventh Cent. 414 et seq. Cf. Dom. Bk. 344. Small freemen holding under Roger Bigot. terras suas vendere et donare; ' Vinogradoff, op. cit. 422 ; cf Dom. Bk. 364; Stow ; Service in Lackford ; 365^, Hepworth ; Service in Stanton and Coney Weston ; Hopton, Barningham ; Service in Coney Weston. »» Ibid. 3 5 7^ 358, 362, 3674 370^. 37 >• "' Ibid. 349^, 3613, 362 ; Vinogradoff, op. cit. 424 ; cf. Dom. Bk. 3io3, 'In Alrincham i. liber homo commendatione et soca falde et alia servitia xx. acras.' "' Ibid. 3103. Here the freeman Edric, commended to Edric of Laxfield, himself had freemen com- mended to him. Cf Stanwin's case, 313, 318^ ; cf 394, ' Assia,' 397^. A freeman of whom the hundred knew not if he could sell T.R.E., but witness that they saw him swear that he could not. '" Ibid. 447. Cf 283, Weston ; 44^*, Thurlston. '" Ibid. 282^. On this subject cf Vinogradoff, op. cit. 426 et seq. ; Dom. Bk. 420^ ; 'Torp,' 4463. 404
 * ' Dom. Bk. 359, 359^, 362, 364^, 365, 365^, 395^. ' Isti sunt liberi homines qui T.R.E. poterant