This being so, it is curious and important to notice that the survey of the manors of the monks of Ely was to be taken upon the oaths of the sheriff of the county, and of all the barons and of their Norman associates (_eorum Francigenarum_), and of the whole hundred (_tocius centuriatus_), the priests, præpositi, and six villani of each manor (_villa_).[114] The sochmanni and liberi homines must here be included either among the 'Norman associates' or the 'whole hundred.' It may be concluded, therefore, that the liberi homines and sochmanni were of Danish or Norman origin, as also probably was the Court Baron itself; whilst in those districts of England not so much under Danish or Norman influence, the demesne lands were not let out until a later period to permanent freeholding tenants. Upon the lord's demesne, and perhaps [p089] in the manorial hall, may have been the '_Francigenæ eorum_' belonging to the 'Comitatus,' not necessarily holders of land, but more or less dependants of the lord of the manor. Out of the Danish district nearly all the population on the manor seems clearly to have been tenants in villenage or slaves. IV. THE CLASSES OF TENANTS IN VILLENAGE. We turn now to the tenants in villenage, who formed the bulk of the population, and with whom this inquiry has most to do. The terms of the writ ordering the survey to be made on the Ely manors show clearly what classes of tenants in villenage were expected to be found on the manors. The jury were to inquire-- (1) Quot villani. (2) Quot cotarii. (3) Quot servi. The three classes of tenants in villenage actually mentioned in the Survey are almost universally the-- (1) Villani. (2) Bordarii [or cottarii]. (3) Servi. «The servi» As regards the servi, the map will show that whilst only embracing nine per cent. of the whole population of England, they were most numerous towards the south-west of England, less and less numerous as the Danish districts were approached, and absent [p090] altogether from Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and bordering districts. Even when most numerous they were hardly tenants in villenage. They seem to have held no land, and often to have been rather household thralls of the lord of the manor than _tenants_ in any ordinary sense of the word.[115] Thus the real tenants in villenage were confined mainly to the two classes of villani and bordarii, or cottiers. «The cottiers.» Taking the _bordarii_ or cottage tenants first, the map will show how evenly they were scattered over the whole country. They embraced 32 per cent.--roughly one-third--of the whole population in their number, and in no county were there less than 12 per cent. of them. «The villani.» But the _villani_ were evidently at the date of the Survey, and at the earlier date of Edward the Confessor, as they were afterwards, by far the most important and typical tenants in villenage. «Same classes of tenants as afterwards.»