SO CA G E. A species of tenure, whereby the tenant held his lands of the lord by any cer tain service in lieu of all other services, so that the service was not a knight's service. Its principal feature was its certainty ; as, to hold by fealty and a certain rent, or by fealty-homage and a certain rent, or by hom age and fealty without rent, or by fealty and certain corporal service, as ploughing the lord's land for a specified number of days. 2 Bla. Com. 80.
The term socage was afterwards extended to all services which were not of a military character, provided they were fixed: as, by the annual payment of a rose, a pair of gilt spurs, a certain number of capons, or of so many bushels of corn. Of some tenements the service was to be hangman, or execution er of persons condemned in the lord's court ; for in olden times such officers were not vol unteers, nor to be hired for lucre, and could only be bound thereto by tenure. There were three different species of these socage tenures —one in frank tenure, another in ancient ten ure, and the third in base tenure: the sec ond and third kinds are now called, respec tively, tenure in ancient demesne, and copy hold tenure. The first is called free and com mon socage, to distinguish it from the other two ; but, as the term socage has long ceased to be applied to the two latter, socage and free and common socage now mean the same thing. Bracton ; Co. Litt. 17,.86.
Free socage was the tenure by which all freehold lands were held, if they were not held by frankalmoin, knight service or ser jeanty. Little can be said about the services which were due. Military service or scutage was not due ; there was no wardship or mar riage. Generally a money rent was due, and
occasionally agricultural services. Primarily the tenant by free socage was a dependent tenant, paying rent, or labor services, or both. Tenure by free socage came to embrace, not only the class of well-to-do farmers, but also all the class who hold at a rent. It was the least encumbered of all the tenures with ob solete and oppressive incidents.
By the statute of 12 Car. II, c. 24, the an dent tenures by knight's service were abol ished, and all lands,. with the exception of copyholds and of ecclesiastical lands, which continued to be held in free alms (frankal moin), were turned into free and common socage and the great bulk of real property in England is now held under this ancient tenure. Many grants of land in the United States, made, previous to the revolution, by the British Crown, created the same tenure among us, until they were formally abolished by the legislatures of the different states. In 1787, the state of New York converted all feudal tenures within its boundaries into a tenure by free and common socage ; but in 1830 it abolished this latter tenure, with all its incidents, and declared that from thence forth all lands in the state should be held up on a uniform allodial tenure, and vested an absolute property in the owners according to their respective estates. Similar provisions have been adopted by other states; and the ownership of land throughout the United States is now essentially free and unrestrict ed. See TENURE.