Sokemen

Part of speech: noun, plural

Definitions

1. Men who held land by socage, a form of tenure involving fixed rents or services; tenants obligated to perform agricultural or other specified duties in medieval England; individuals bound by customary agreements to their lord for land use and tenure
2. Those occupying land under the socage system, which entails paying rent or providing specific services rather than military aid; feudal tenants whose obligations were limited and clearly defined; persons holding property under a tenure governed by legal customs rather than personal service
3. Feudal tenants who held their estates through the socage tenure, meaning they owed particular non-military services or fixed payments; landholders with a status distinct from knights or sergeants; holders bound by the manor’s regulations to cultivate or manage land as agreed with their lord

Etymology: "Sokemen" is the plural of "sokeman," a term from Anglo-Saxon England for a free tenant bound to a particular lord's jurisdiction. The singular combines "soke," a word meaning jurisdiction or the right to hold a court, with "man," so a sokeman was, in effect, a man who owed his lord the obligations that came with that court's authority. The plural simply names the group of such tenants on an estate. Under the later Norman system, the sokemen's position was defined by socage, a form of tenure in which land was held for services that were not military, such as fixed rents, agricultural labour, or duties tied to the manor's customs. This made them distinct from knights and sergeants, whose holdings carried military obligations. Because socage rested on the manor's own regulations, the sokemen were expected to cultivate or manage their land in the agreed way, and their standing depended on the terms of their particular manor rather than on any general rank.

Synonyms: serfs, peasants, villeins, tenant farmers

Antonyms: lords, nobles, landowners