Soke (legal)

The term soke (/ˈsoʊk/; in Old English: soc, connected ultimately with secan, "to seek"), at the time of the Norman conquest of England generally denoted "jurisdiction", but due to vague usage probably lacks a single precise definition.

In some cases soke denoted the right to hold a court, and in others only the right to receive the fines and forfeitures of the men over whom it was granted when they had been condemned in a court of competent jurisdiction. Its primary meaning seems to have involved seeking; thus soka faldae was the duty of seeking the lord's court, just as secta ad molendinum was the duty of seeking the lord's mill. The Leges also speaks of pleas in socna, id est, in quaestione sua (pleas which are in his investigation).

Evidently, however, not long after the Norman Conquest considerable doubt prevailed about the correct meaning of the word. In some versions of the much-used tract Interpretationes vocabulorum soke is defined: aver fraunc court, and in others as interpellacio maioris audientiae, which glosses somewhat ambiguously as claim ajustis et requeste.

The word soke also frequently appears in association with sak or sake in the alliterative jingle sake and soke, but the two words lack etymological links. The word sake represents the Old English sacu, originally meaning "a matter or cause" (from sacan "to contend"), and later the right to have a court. The word soke, however, appears more commonly and appears to have had a wider range of meaning.

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