Sokeman

Now Hist. Also 6–7 erron. -mayn, -main. [a. AF. sokeman or ad. Anglo-Lat. sokemannus (also sok-, socke-, sochemannus), f. the OE. word represented by SOKE¹ and SOKEN + MAN sb.¹] A tenant holding land in socage; a socman.

  [a. 1066.  Laws Edw. Confess., xii. (Thorpe). Manbote in Danelaʓa, de vilano et socheman xii oras.

a. 1086.  Domesday Bk., I. 273/2. Ibi apposuit Rex W. sex sochemanos pertinentes at Rapendune.

1235–59.  Bracton, II. xxxv. (Rolls), I. 614. Tenentes, qui tenent sockagio, sockemanni dici poterunt. Ibid., IV. xxviii. III. 378. Et hujusmodi villani sokmanni, proprie dicuntur glebæ ascriptitii.

c. 1290.  Britton (1865), II. 13. Ceux sount proprement nos sokemans et privelegez en ceste manere.

1367.  in Vinogradoff, Villainage in Eng. (1892), 116, note. Teux services comme gents de petits sokemans fierent en auncien temps. Ibid. (a. 1399), 91, note. Item sokemanni predicti filias suas non possunt maritare sine licencia domini.

1413.  14 Hen. IV., f 34, in Year Book (1605), Hhh vj. Et auxy il ad diuersitie parenter sokeman de franktenure, et sokeman de base tenure.

1567.  Fitzherbert, Nat. Brev., 14. Quar les tenantz en auncien demesne sont appelles Sokemans, s. tenants del carue, anglice, le plough.

1581.  Kitchin, Court Leet, 87 b. Mes est diuersitie enter Sokemaynes de franke tenure, et sokemaines de base tenure.]

  1603.  Stow, Surv., vii. 64. The said Robert [Fitzwalter] ought to haue a sokeman.

1607.  Norden, Surv. Dial., III. 100. There is also a copy-hold estate, called ancient demeisne, and the tenants, Sokemains.

1614.  Selden, Titles Hon., 334. Sokemans were but Tenants in socage.

1749.  Pote, Hist. Windsor Castle, 2. Together with fourteen Sokemen and their Lands.

1766.  Blackstone, Comm., II. 87. The statute 28 Edw. I. c. 1. declares, that a free sokeman shall give no relief.

1839.  Penny Cycl., XIII. 245/2. No one was to be distrained … on account of land which he held in manors of the antient demesne of the crown as a sokeman.

1897.  F. W. Maitland, Domesday & Beyond, 142. The sokeman’s hide or virgate … is composed of many scattered strips.

  b.  attrib. in † sokeman-mote.

  13[?].  Rotuli Hundredorum (1818), II. 143/1. Item dicunt quod Ermoldus de Boys … solebat facere sectam ad Boxford ad sockemanemot pro terra Ricardi Serle.