The Danes in Lancashire and Yorkshire

by S. W. Partington

In those districts where the Danes exercised complete dominion the custom of slavery was abolished. This fact is established by a comparison of the population of those districts colonised by the Danes with that of the older English districts. The population returns given in Domesday Book prove that no "servi" existed in the counties where Danish influence was greatest. Both in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire at this time there is no record of slavery. In the counties where this influence was less, such as Nottingham, the returns show that one serf existed to every 200 of the population. In Derbyshire 1 per cent., in Norfolk and Suffolk 4 per cent., in Leicestershire 6 per cent., in Northamptonshire 10 per cent., in Cambridge, Hertford and Essex 11 per cent. Outside the influence of the Danelagh the proportion is much greater. In Oxfordshire 14 per cent. were slaves, in Worcester, Bucks, Somerset and Wiltshire 15 per cent., in Dorset and Hampshire 16 per cent., in Shropshire 17 per cent., in Devonshire 18 per cent., in Cornwall 21 per cent., and in Gloucestershire 24 per cent., or almost one-fourth of the whole population. These records were not made by Danish surveyors, but Norman officials, and explode the theory of historians like Green who assert that the English settlers were Communities of free men. These conditions of tenure were introduced by the Danes, and became so firmly established that the names given to such freeholders as "statesmen" in Cumberland, "freemen" and "yeomen" in Yorkshire, Westmorland and North Lancashire still exist at the present day.

As we have seen, records of struggles for tenant rights have come to light in recent years which prove that feudal conditions were imposed by successive landlords, and were resisted both before and after the Commonwealth.

Invasion and Settlement.

The Norse settlement at the mouth of the Dee dated from the year 900 when Ingimund, who had been expelled from Dublin, was given certain waste lands near Chester, by Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians. This colony extended from the shore of Flint, over the Wirral peninsula to the Mersey, and it is recorded in Domesday by the name of their Thingwall or Tingvella. Along with the group of Norse names in the Wirral is Thurstaston, or Thors-Stone, or Thorstun-tun. This natural formation of red sandstone has been sometimes mistaken for a Tingmount or Norse monument. Several monuments of the tenth century Norse colony are to be found in the district, such as the Hogback Stone in West Kirby Museum, and the gravestone bearing the wheel-shaped head. A similar monument was found on Hilbre Island, and other remains of cross slabs occur at Neston and Bromborough.

The Norse place-names of Wirral prove that these lands were waste and unoccupied, when names of Danish origin were given, such as Helsby, Frankby, Whitby, Raby, Irby, Greasby and Pensby. Some Wirral names are composed of Celtic and Norse, as the settlers brought both Gælic and Norse names from Ireland. These are found in the Norse Runes in the Isle of Man and north of Lancaster.

Socmen were manorial tenants who were free in status, though their land was not held by charter, like that of a freeholder, but was secured to them by custom. They paid a fixed rent for the virgate, or part of a virgate, which they generally held; and, taking the Peterborough Socmen as examples, they were bound to render farm produce, such as fowls and eggs, at stated seasons; to lend their plough teams thrice in winter and spring; to mow and carry hay; to thresh and harrow, and do other farm work for one day ... and to help at the harvest for one or two days. Their services contrasted with the week-work of a villein, were little more than nominal and are comparable to those of the Radmanni. The Peterborough socmen reappear under the "Descriptio Militum" of the abbey, where it is said they were served "cum militibus," but this appears to be exceptional. Socmen were like "liber tenentes" frequently liable to "merchet, heriot and tallage." Their tenure was the origin of free socage, common in the thirteenth century, and now the prevailing tenure of land in England. Socmen held land by a fixed money payment, and by a fixed though trivial amount of base service which would seem to ultimately disappear by commutation." All socmen as customary tenants required the intervention of the steward of the manor in the transfer or sale of their rights. ("Palgrave's Dictionary of Political Economy," p. 439.)

Merchet. Of all the manorial exactions the most odious was the "Merchetum," a fine paid by the villain on giving his daughter in marriage. It was considered as a mark of servile descent, and the man free by blood was supposed to be always exempted from it, however debased his position was in every other respect.

In the status of socmen, developed from the law of Saxon freemen there was usually nothing of the kind. "Heriot" was the fine or tax payable to the lord or abbot on the death of the socman. The true Heriot is akin in name and in character to the Saxon "here-great"—to the surrender of the military outfit supplied by the chief to his follower. In feudal time and among peasants it is not the war-horse and armour that is meant, but the ox and harness take their place. (Vinogradoff, "Mediæval Manors": Political Exactions, Chap. V., 153.)

Mol-men. Etymologically, there is reason to believe that this term is of Danish origin, and the meaning has been kept in practice by the Scotch dialect (vide "Ashley, Economic History," i, pp. 56–87.)

Tallage. The payment of arbitrary tallage is held during the thirteenth century to imply a servile status. Such tallage at will is not very often found in documents, although the lord sometimes retained his prerogative in this respect even when sanctioning the customary form of renders and services. Now and then it is mentioned that tallage is to be levied once a year although the amount remains uncertain. ("Villianage in England," Chap. v, 163, Vinogradoff.)