socage

American  

[sok-ij] / ˈsɒk ɪdʒ /

Or soccage

noun

Medieval English Law.

1. a tenure of land held by the tenant in performance of specified services or by payment of rent, and not requiring military service.

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socage British  

/ ˈsɒkɪdʒ /

noun

1. English legal history the tenure of land by certain services, esp of an agricultural nature

2. English law the freehold tenure of land

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Other Word Forms

• socager
  noun

Etymology

Origin of socage

1275–1325; Middle English sokage < Anglo-French socage, equivalent to soc soke + -age -age

Example Sentences

So it stands in our old records, In the statutes of our union: Nothing there of rent and socage, Nothing of a bondman's service!

From The Trumpeter of Säkkingen A Song from the Upper Rhine. by Scheffel, Joseph Victor von

The king shall not claim the wardship of any minor who holds lands by military tenure of a baron, on pretence that he also holds lands of the crown by socage or any other tenure.

From The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 06 (From Barbarossa to Dante) by Horne, Charles F. (Charles Francis)

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.

From Mother Earth Land Grants in Virginia 1607-1699 by Robinson, Walter Stitt

As they claim as joint-heirs or parceners, the land must have been subject to partibility, and therefore of socage tenure.

From Notes and Queries, Number 68, February 15, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. by Bell, George

It is more correctly described as socage tenure, subject to the custom of gavelkind.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 5 "Gassendi, Pierre" to "Geocentric" by Various