soc and sac

English

Alternative forms

• socan and sacan
• sake and soke

Etymology

From Old English sōcen and sacan, equivalent to the Anglo-Norman oyer and terminer.

Noun

soc and sac (uncountable)

1. (UK, law, historical) The right of a lord to hear and decide legal cases on his estate without recourse to other courts.
   • 1806, Francis Bloomfield, An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, Vol. IV, p. 517:

     King John granted to the prior and convent, in all their manors and lands, sac, soc, tol, and theam, infangenthef, and outfangenthef, with the ordeals or judgment by fire, water, and iron, and a common gallows in each manor; with a view of frankenpledge, and assize of bread and ale, of all their tenants […]

Synonyms

• oyer and terminer

See also

• infangenthef, outfangenthef

References

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “soc and sac”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)