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 its vague usage makes it lack a single, precise definition.
"[3] Historians such as Paul Vinogradoff considered royal grants of sac and soc as opening the way for national to be replaced by local justice, through the creation of immunities or franchises.
[5] The standard grant of sac et soc, toll et team et infangthief represented the equivalent of the authority of the reeve at the hundred court,[6] impinging on royal justice, for instance, in the right to slay a thief caught red-handed (infangentheof).
[1] Sokemen remained an important rural element after the Conquest, buying and selling property, and providing their overlords with money rents and court attendance, rather than manorial labour.
[9] According to the Ely Inquiry, the terms of remit for the Domesday Book specified determining for each manor "how many freemen; how many sokemen...and how much each freeman and sokeman had and has".