Socage in United States

Socage Definition

This word, according to the earlier common-law writers, originally signified a service rendered by a tenant to his lord, by the soke or ploughshare; but Mr. Somner’s etymology, referred to by Blackstone, seems more apposite, who derives it from the Saxon word soc, which signifies liberty or privilege, denoting thereby a free or privilege tenure. A species of English tenure, whereby the tenant held his lands of the lord by any certain service in lieu of all other services, so that the service was not a knight’s service. Its principal feature was its certainty ; as, to hold by fealty and a certain rent, or by fealty homage and a certain rent, or by homage and fealty without rent, or by fealty and certain corporal service, as ploughing the lord’s land for a specified number of days. 2 Bl. Comm. 80. The term “socage” was afterwards extended to all services which were not of a military character, provided they were fixed; as, by the annual payment of a rose, a pair of gilt spurs, a certain number of capons, or of so many bushels of com. Of some tenements, the service was to be hangman, or executioner of persons condemned in the lord’s court; for in olden times such officers were not volunteers, nor to be hired for lucre, and could only be bound thereto by tenure. There were three different species of these socage tenures, one in frank tenure, another in ancient tenure, and the third in base tenure. The second and third kinds are now called, respectively, “tenure in ancient demesne,” and “copyhold tenure.” The first is called “free and common socage,” to distinguish it from the other two; but, as the term “socage” has long ceased to be applied to the two latter, “socage” and “free and common socage” now mean the same thing. Bracton; Co. Litt. 17, 86. By St. 12 Car. II. c. 24, the ancient tenures by knight’s service were abolished, and all lands, with the exception of copyholds and of ecclesiastical lands, which continued to be held in free alms (frankalmoigne), were turned into free and common socage, and the great bulk of real property in England is now held under this ancient tenure. Many grants of land in the United States, made, previous to the Revolution, by the British crown, created the same tenure among us, until they were formally abolished by the legislatures of the different states. In 1787, the state of New “York converted all feudal tenure within its boundaries into a tenure by free and common socage; but in 1830 it abolished this latter tenure, with all its incidents, and declared that from thenceforth all lands in the state should be held upon a uniform allodial tenure, and vested an absolute property in the ovraiers according to their respective estates. Similar provisions have been adopted by other states; and the ownership of land throughout the United States is now essentially free and unrestricted. See “Tenure.”

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This word, according to the earlier common-law writers, originally signified a service rendered by a tenant to his lord, by the soke or ploughshare; but Mr. Somner’s etymology, referred to by Blackstone, seems more apposite, who derives it from the Saxon word soc, which signifies liberty or privilege, denoting thereby a free or privilege tenure. A species of English tenure, whereby the tenant held his lands of the lord by any certain service in lieu of all other services, so that the service was not a knight’s service. Its principal feature was its certainty ; as, to hold by fealty and a certain rent, or by fealty homage and a certain rent, or by homage and fealty without rent, or by fealty and certain corporal service, as ploughing the lord’s land for a specified number of days. 2 Bl. Comm. 80. The term “socage” was afterwards extended to all services which were not of a military character, provided they were fixed; as, by the annual payment of a rose, a pair of gilt spurs, a certain number of capons, or of so many bushels of com. Of some tenements, the service was to be hangman, or executioner of persons condemned in the lord’s court; for in olden times such officers were not volunteers, nor to be hired for lucre, and could only be bound thereto by tenure. There were three different species of these socage tenures, one in frank tenure, another in ancient tenure, and the third in base ten
ure. The second and third kinds are now called, respectively, “tenure in ancient demesne,” and “copyhold tenure.” The first is called “free and common socage,” to distinguish it from the other two; but, as the term “socage” has long ceased to be applied to the two latter, “socage” and “free and common socage” now mean the same thing. Bracton; Co. Litt. 17, 86. By St. 12 Car. II. c. 24, the ancient tenures by knight’s service were abolished, and all lands, with the exception of copyholds and of ecclesiastical lands, which continued to be held in free alms (frankalmoigne), were turned into free and common socage, and the great bulk of real property in England is now held under this ancient tenure. Many grants of land in the United States, made, previous to the Revolution, by the British crown, created the same tenure among us, until they were formally abolished by the legislatures of the different states. In 1787, the state of New “York converted all feudal tenure within its boundaries into a tenure by free and common socage; but in 1830 it abolished this latter tenure, with all its incidents, and declared that from thenceforth all lands in the state should be held upon a uniform allodial tenure, and vested an absolute property in the ovraiers according to their respective estates. Similar provisions have been adopted by other states; and the ownership of land throughout the United States is now essentially free and unrestricted. See “Tenure.”

This definition of Socage is based on The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary. This entry needs to be proofread.