almoſt every other ſpecies of tenure. And to this we are next to proceed.
II. Socage, in it's moſt general and extenſive ſignification, ſeems to denote a tenure by any certain and determinate ſervice. And in this ſenſe it is by our antient writers conſtantly put in oppoſition to chivalry, or knight-ſervice, where the render was precarious and uncertain. Thus Bracton[1]; if a man holds by a rent in money, without any eſcuage or ſerjeanty, "id tenementum dici poteſt ſocagium:" but if you add thereto any royal ſervice, or eſcuage to any, the ſmalleſt, amount, "illud did poterit feodum militare." So too the author of Fleta[2]; "ex donationibus ſervitia militaria vel magnae ſerjantiae non continentibus, oritur nobis quoddam nomen generale, quod eſt ſocagium." Littleton alſo[3] defines it to be, where the tenant holds his tenement of the lord by any certain ſervice, in lieu of all other ſervices; ſo that they be not ſervices of chivalry, or knight-ſervice. And therefore afterwards[4] he tells us, that whatſoever is not tenure in chivalry is tenure in ſocage: in like manner as it is defined by Finch[5], a tenure to be done out of war. The ſervice muſt therefore be certain, in order to denominate it ſocage; as to hold by fealty and 20s. rent; or, by homage, fealty, and 20s. rent; or, by homage and fealty without rent; or, by fealty and certain corporal ſervice, as ploughing the lord's land for three days; or, by fealty only without any other ſervice: for all theſe are tenures in ſocage[6].
But ſocage, as was hinted in the laſt chapter, is of two ſorts: free-ſocage, where the ſervices are not only certain, but honourable; and villein-ſocage, where the ſervices, though certain, are of a baſer nature. Such as hold by the former tenure are called in Glanvil[7], and other ſubſequent authors, by the name of liberi ſokemanni, or tenants in free-ſocage. Of this tenure we are firſt
