[131] In Leg. Will. Conq. I. 16, we hear of the forisfacturae (probably the ‘insult fines’) due to archbishops, bishops, counts, barons and sokemen; the baron has 10 shillings, the sokeman 40 pence. In the same document, c. 20, § 2, we read of the reliefs of counts, barons, vavassors and villeins. Leg. Edw. Conf. 12, § 4, speaks of the manbót due in the Danelaw; on the death of a villanus or a socheman 12 ores are paid, on the death of a liber homo 3 marks.
[132] D. B. i. 167 b, Heile: ‘ibi erant 12 servi quos Willelmus liberos fecit.’
[133] D. B. i. 263: ‘Si quis liber homo facit opera in die feriato inde episcopus habet 8 solidos. De servo autem vel ancilla feriatum diem infringente, habet episcopus 4 solidos.’ Compare Cnut, II. 45.
[134] D. B. i. 86: ‘Huic manerio reddebatur T. R. E. de Cruche per annum consuetudo, hoc est 6 oves cum agnis totidem, et quisque liber homo i. blomam ferri.’ South Perrott had belonged to the Confessor, Crewkerne to Edith, probably ‘the rich and fair.’ For the description of Cruche see D. B. i. 86 b. As to the ‘bloom’ of iron see Ellis, Introduction, i. 136.
[135] D. B. i. 92. See also p. 87 b, the account of Seveberge.
[136] D. B. ii. 145.
[137] D. B. ii. 1: ‘In hoc manerio erat tunc temporis quidam liber homo de dimidia hida qui modo effectus est unus de villanis.’
[138] Thus D. B. i. 127, Mid.: ‘inter francos et villanos 45 carucae’; Ibid. 70, Wilts: ‘4 villani et 3 bordarii et unus francus cum 2 carucis’; Ibid. 241, Warw.: ‘Ibi sunt 3 francones homines cum 4 villanis et 3 bordariis.’ Sometimes francus may be an equivalent for francigena; e.g. i. 254 b, where in one entry we have unus francigena and in the next unus francus homo. But an Englishman may be francus; ii. 54 b ‘accepit 15 acras de uno franco teigno et misit cum terra sua.’ However, it is not an insignificant fact that the very name of Frenchman (francigena) must have suggested free birth.
[139] For examples see the surveys of Warwick, Stafford and Shropshire.
[140] D. B. ii. 260: ‘et 7 homines qui possent vendere terram suam si eam prius obtulissent domino suo.’