Note 63 — PART I TERRITORIAL STUDIES

So too in the case of three 'liberi homines', commended to the Abbot in Norfolk. He had no right over them, but such as commendation conferred 'non habebat nisi commendationem', while their 'soca' belonged to the King's Manor of Keninghall.63 Conversely, the Abbot of Ely had the 'soca' of a 'man' of Earl Waltheof,64 and a 'man' of John, Waleran's nephew.65 'Commendatio', of course, took precedence as a right. Thus we read of the above three 'liberi homines'—'Hos liberos homines tenet [tenuit] Ratfridus, postea W. de Scodies, et abbas saisivit eos propter commendationem suam' (p. 133).