Soke (legal) facts for kids

The term soke (pronounced "sohk") was used in England a long time ago, around the time of the Norman conquest of England in 1066. It generally meant "authority" or "power," especially over a certain area or group of people. However, it was used in many ways, so it didn't always have one exact meaning.

Early English History of Soke

In early English history, people used the phrase 'Sac and soc' to describe the right to hold a court. This meant having the power to make decisions about local laws and disputes. The word 'soc' itself seemed to be connected to the idea of 'seeking' or 'going to.' For example, 'soka faldae' was the duty of going to the lord's court.

Many historians believe that the Danelaw, an area in England where Vikings (Danes) had settled, was a very "free" place. This was because the Danish soldiers who settled there brought their own social system, which gave more freedom to ordinary people.

Kings would sometimes grant "sac and soc" to powerful lords. This meant the lords could set up their own local courts and deal with justice, rather than everything going to the king's national courts. This slowly led to more local power over justice. Some historians, like G. M. Trevelyan, said that "private justice was encroaching on public justice." Other experts think these powers were actually quite limited. A common grant of "sac et soc, toll et team et infangthief" gave a local lord similar power to a royal official in a local court. For example, it included the right to deal with a thief caught in the act.

Sokemen: A Special Kind of Tenant

A sokeman was a type of tenant, or person who held land, mostly found in the eastern parts of England, especially the Danelaw. They were somewhere between completely free tenants and unfree tenants (called villeins).

Sokemen were special because they owned their land and paid taxes on it themselves. They made up a large part of the countryside, sometimes between 30% and 50% of the people. They could buy and sell their land, which was a big deal for the time. However, they still had to provide services to their lord's soke, which meant they were under their lord's court or authority.

Even after the Norman Conquest, sokemen remained an important group in the countryside. They continued to buy and sell property. Instead of working directly on their lord's land, they often paid their lords with money and attended their lord's court. The Domesday Book, a famous survey of England made after the Norman Conquest, specifically asked how many free men and sokemen there were in each area.

Later Meanings of Soke

After the Norman Conquest, people started to get confused about the exact meaning of the word "soke." In some old writings, "soke" was defined as "to have a free court." In other writings, it meant something like "a claim for a bigger hearing." So, sometimes "soke" meant the right to hold a court, especially when it was used with "sak" or "sake" in the phrase "sake and soke."

Other times, "soke" just meant the right to collect fines and money that people had to pay when they were found guilty in a court. Some experts, like Adolphus Ballard in the early 1900s, argued that "soke" by itself meant services owed, and only when it was part of the longer phrase "sake and soke" did it mean "jurisdiction" (the power to make legal decisions). Many parts of the Domesday Book seem to agree with this, but in other places, "soke" seems to be a short way of saying "sake and soke."

Soke as a Place

Unlike "sake," the term soke sometimes referred to the actual area or district where the right of jurisdiction applied. For example, the Soke of Peterborough is a historical area. It could also mean a part of a town, like Aldgate in the City of London.

The Word "Socage"

The legal term socage comes from the word soke. It was used to describe a type of land ownership where the tenant paid a fixed rent or performed certain services, rather than military service.

See also

• History of English land law
• Soke used in place-names:
  • Portsoken, a district in the City of London
  • Soke of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
  • Thorpe-le-Soken, Essex
  • Kirby-le-Soken, Essex
  • Walton-le-Soken, Essex
  • Liberty of the Soke, Winchester
• Socken