Feudal England: Historical Studies on the Eleventh and Twelfth CenturiesRound, John Horace
History
Feudal England: Historical Studies on the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries
Round, John Horace
Domesday book; Feudalism -- Great Britain; Great Britain -- History -- Norman period, 1066-1154; Normans -- Great Britain
There was further in this Manor a _double hide_, called a
_solanda_, presumably of 240 acres. This double hide, called a
_solanda_, is also mentioned in a Manor in Middlesex [Sutton],
and in another in Surrey [Drayton][195]; and the term
_solanda_ is probably the same as the well-known '_Sollung_'
or '_solin_' of Kent, meaning a 'ploughland'.
Proceeding further (p. 395), Mr Seebohm wrote:
Generally in Kent, and sometimes in Sussex, Berks and Essex,
we found, in addition to, or instead of, the hide or carucate,
or 'terra unius aratri', _solins_, _sullungs_, or _swullungs_,
the land pertaining to a '_suhl_', the Anglo-Saxon word for
plough.
Unfortunately no reference is given for the cases of Sussex and Berks,
and I know of none myself.
Turning now to the learned work of Professor Vinogradoff, we find him
equally misled:
Of the _sulung_ I have spoken already. It is a full
ploughland, and 200 acres are commonly reckoned to belong
to it. The name is sometimes found out of Kent, in Essex for
instance. In Tillingham, a Manor of St. Paul's, of London, we
come across six hides 'trium solandarum'. The most probable
explanation seems to be that the hide or unit of assessment is
contrasted with the _solanda_ or _sulland_[196] (sulung), that
is with the actual ploughland, and two hides are reckoned as a
single _solanda_ (p. 255).
Lastly, we come to Mr Seebohm's reply to Professor Vinogradoff
(_ante_, pp. 444-465). Here the identity is again assumed:
Along with parts of Essex, the Kentish records differ
in phraseology from those of the rest of England. Their
_sullungs_ of 240 acres occur also in the Manors of Essex
belonging to St. Paul's, and the custom of gavelkind and
succession of the youngest child mark it off as exceptional.
Mr Vinogradoff ... shows that in the Kentish district, and
in Essex, where the _sullung_ or _solanda_ takes the place of the
hide, and where gavelkind prevailed, the unity of the hides
and virgates was preserved only for the purposes of taxation
and the services; whilst in reality the holdings clustered
under the nominal unit were many and irregular.
I yield to no one in admiration for Mr Seebohm's work, but the
question raised is so important that accuracy as to the fact is
here essential. (1) _Sullung_ is nowhere found in Essex, but only
_solanda_; (2) _Solanda_ does not occur 'in the Manors' referred to,
but at Tillingham alone; (3) In Essex it nowhere 'takes the places
of the hide', as it does in Kent; (4) The Essex instance adduced by
Professor Vinogradoff is taken from a Manor where _solanda_ does not
occur.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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