300 THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND. [book i.
which she would give her brother, of two hereditary
estates which he had devised to her1.
Again, shortly before the Conquest, we find Abbot
Wulfwold thus informing Gisa bishop of Wells,
√Egelno¾ the abbot, Tofig the sheriff, and all the
thanes in Somerset2:
“ Eadweard the king, my lord, gave me the land
at Corfestige which my father held, and the four
farms at Æscwïc, and the fields of meadow-land
thereunto belonging, and in wood and field so much
that I had pasture for my cattle and the cattle of
my men ; and all as free in every respect as the
king’s own demesme, to give or sell, during my day
or after my day, to whomsoever it best pleases me.”
In both these cases it is clear that the land was
holden as a benefice ; that the tenant had only a
life interest, which Wulfwold however succeeded in
converting into a, fee.
As the State were the grantors, so also there ap-
pears to have been no restriction as to the persons of
the grantees. Of course this does not include serfs,
or others below the degree of freemen ; although an
emancipated serf may sometimes have been pro-
vided with an estate of folcland, by general dona-
tion. But there is no reason to doubt that every
other class might obtain grants of folcland. Those
of a duke and of various bishops have been men-
tioned; Wulfwold’s father was probably, at least a
thane. But even the king himself could and did
1 Cod. DipL No. 317.
2 Members of the seɪrgemot or county-court : hence the instrument
is of a solemn and legal description. Cod. Dipl. No. 821.
сн. xi.]
Fololand and bo,cland.
soi
hold land of this description. The boundary of an
estate is said to run to the king’s folcland ; “ ab
occidente Cyninges folcland quod habet Wighelm
et Wulflaf1.”
At a very early period however it became a prac-
tice to carve hereditary estates out of the folcland,
which thus became the private property of the
individual, and could by him be given, sold, or
devised at his pleasure ; by which the reversion to
the state was defeated, and the common stock in-
sofar diminished. It was also usual to release such
land from all the dues which had previously been
rendered from it, and to make it absolutely freef2,
with the exception of the three services which
were inevitably incident to all landed possession,
and which are consequently known by the names
of Communis labor, Generalis incommoditas, Onus
inevitabile, Trinoda nécessitas, and similar expres-
sions. These estates were alw ays granted by book
or charter, and hence bore the name of bocland :
and it is questionable whether the two descriptions
did not, at a very early period, comprise all the
land in England, as the families of the first allodial
possessors died out, and their possessions either
reverted to the state, or became alienated under
circumstances which included them in the category
of bocland.
We learn that the pretext upon which these con-
* Cod. Dipl. No. 281.
2 Henco a free hide, hida libera, is properly called “an hiwisc
ægefæles landes,” a hide of land that pays no gafol or tax. Cod.
Bipl. No. 1070.