Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Feudal tenure of land by a tenant in return for agricultural or other nonmilitary services or for payment of rent in money.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In law, a tenure of lands in England by the performance of certain determinate service: distinguished both from
knight-service , in which the render was uncertain, and fromvilleinage , where the service was of the meanest kind: the only freehold tenure in England after the abolition of military tenures.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (O.Eng. Law) A tenure of lands and tenements by a certain or determinate service; a tenure distinct from chivalry or knight's service, in which the obligations were uncertain. The service must be certain, in order to be denominated
socage , as to hold by fealty and twenty shillings rent.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun obsolete In the Middle Ages, a system whereby a tenant would pay a rent or do some agricultural work for the landlord.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun land tenure by agricultural service or payment of rent; not burdened with military service
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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A minor might, however, inherit land held by what was known as socage tenure, which according to Sir William Blackstone
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 7: Gregory XII-Infallability 1840-1916 1913
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But this does not hold good where the King is the lord of the common pasture, and several persons holding of him in socage have common, because in that case anyone having common may avow a good distress.
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The proprietors held their land in free and common socage, and the planters in the Northern Neck paid quitrents and fees to the proprietors rather than to the crown.
Mother Earth Land Grants in Virginia 1607-1699 Walter Stitt Robinson
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The fixed rent replaced the service, military or personal, required under feudal law; and the socage tenure in effect did not subject the land to the rules of escheat or return of the land to the
Mother Earth Land Grants in Virginia 1607-1699 Walter Stitt Robinson
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His right to the land, in fact, was not freehold, but tenure by villein socage.
The Philippine Islands John Foreman
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It is curious that while in England the burgage-tenure was deemed a species of socage, to distinguish it from the military holdings, in Scotland it was strictly a military holding, by the service of watching and warding for the defence of the burgh.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" Various
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He had just got to the bit about Raptu Haeredis, which -- as of course you know, is a writ for taking away an heir holding in socage.
The Girl on the Boat 1928
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They were given in freehold, in free and common socage.
The Seigneurs of Old Canada : A Chronicle of New World Feudalism William Bennett Munro 1916
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The Puritan who went to Massachusetts Bay took his system of socage tenure along with him.
The Seigneurs of Old Canada : A Chronicle of New World Feudalism William Bennett Munro 1916
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Prince Cuza introduced a series of reforms; the most important were the secularization of the Greek monasteries, the law dealing with public instruction, the codification of the laws on the basis of the Napoleonic Code, and especially the land laws of 1864, by which the peasants were given free possession of the land and the remnants of serfdom, socage and tithes, were abolished.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 13: Revelation-Stock 1840-1916 1913
chained_bear commented on the word socage
See OED definition on soccage (alternate/archaic spelling).
November 20, 2008