Legal Definitions - socage

Socage is a type of land tenure where a tenant holds lands in exchange for providing the lord with husbandry-related services instead of military service. It is a free tenure that does not fall under the definition of knight-service, serjeanty, or frankalmoin.

• If a peasant's duties were fixed, such as helping the lord with sowing or reaping at specified times, the tenure was usually called socage. This was originally the tenure of socmen, but it became a generic term for all free services other than knight-service, serjeanty, or spiritual service.
• Free socage is socage in which the services were both certain and honorable. By the statute 12 Car. 2, ch. 24 (1660), all the tenures by knight-service were, with minor exceptions, converted into free socage.
• Villein socage is socage in which the services, though certain, were of a baser nature than those provided under free socage.

These examples illustrate how socage was a type of land tenure that allowed tenants to provide services to their lords in exchange for land. The type of socage depended on the nature of the services provided, with free socage being more honorable and villein socage being of a baser nature. The conversion of tenures by knight-service into free socage shows how socage became the most common type of land tenure in England.