that, if ſocage tenures were of ſuch baſe and ſervile original, it is hard to account for the very great immunities which the tenants of them always enjoyed; ſo highly ſuperior to thoſe of the tenants by chivalry, that it was thought, in the reigns of both Edward I and Charles II, a point of the utmoſt importance and value to the tenants, to reduce the tenure by knight-ſervice to fraunke ferme or tenure by ſocage. We may therefore, I think, fairly conclude in favour of Somner's etymology, and the liberal extraction of the tenure in free ſocage, againſt the authority even of Littleton himſelf.
Taking this then to be the meaning of the word, it ſeems probable that the ſocage tenures were the relics of Saxon liberty, retained by ſuch perſons, as had neither forfeited them to the king, nor been obliged to exchange their tenure for the more honourable, as it was called, but at the ſame time more burthenſome, tenure of knight-ſervice. This is peculiarly remarkable in the tenure which prevails in Kent, called gavelkind, which is generally acknowleged to be a ſpecies of ſocage tenure[1]; the preſervation whereof inviolate from the innovations of the Norman conqueror is a fact univerſally known. And thoſe who thus preſerved their liberties were ſaid to hold in free and common ſocage.
As therefore the grand criterion and diſtinguiſhing mark of this ſpecies of tenure are the having it's renders or ſervices aſcertained, it will include under it all other methods of holding free lands by certain and invariable rents and duties: and, in particular, petit ſerjeanty, tenure in burgage, and gavelkind.
We may remember, that by the ſtatute 12 Car. II. grand ſerjeanty is not itſelf totally aboliſhed, but only the ſlaviſh appendages belonging to it; for the honorary ſervices (ſuch as carrying the king's ſword or banner, officiating as his butler, carver, &c, at the coronation) are ſtill reſerved. Now petit ſerjeanty bears a great reſemblance to grand ſerjeanty; for as the one is a perſonal
- ↑ Wright. 211.
