The Sokens is a name often used to describe the area containing the traditional parishes of Thorpe,

Kirby Kirby may refer to: Buildings * Kirby Building, a skyscraper in Dallas, Texas, United States * Kirby Hall, an Elizabethan country house near Corby, Northamptonshire, England * Kirby House (disambiguation), various houses in England and the Unit ...

and Walton, which now lie in

Tendring Tendring is a village and civil parish in Essex. It gives its name to the Tendring District and before that the Tendring Hundred. Its name was given to the larger groupings because it was at the centre, not because it was larger than the other ...

district in the

Naze The Naze is a headland on the east coast of England. It is on the coast of Essex just north of Blackwater and projects into the North Sea. This area is south of the double estuary of the River Stour and River Orwell at Harwich and just north ...

area of northeast

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. The significance of this grouping is now mostly historical. The name 'Soken' is derived from the Saxon '' 'soc' '' or '' 'soca', '' signifying immunity, peculiar privileges and jurisdiction. It refers in particular to the power to administer justice within itself, and likewise the circuit within which such power was exercised. Among others was the claim that no bailiff except the lord's bailiff could arrest any person within the parish.

History

Thorpe, Kirby and Walton once made up the ancient manor of Adulvesnasa. This name probably refers to the

promontory A promontory is a raised mass of land that projects into a lowland or a body of water (in which case it is a peninsula). Most promontories either are formed from a hard ridge of rock that has resisted the erosive forces that have removed the soft ...

or Naze where Walton now lies, and may denote a former landowner. The

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

states that, in 1066, the manor was owned by the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, and was assessed at 27

hides __NOTOC__ Hide or hides may refer to: Common uses * Hide (skin), the cured skin of an animal * Bird hide, a structure for observing birds and other wildlife without causing disturbance * Gamekeeper's hide or hunting hide or hunting blind, a stru ...

. It may have been granted to them by King Athelstan. The manor was held directly of the King, forming a peculiar jurisdiction or soke. The first indication of subdivision into three dependent manors comes in 1150. The Chapter retained the area until 1544, when it was exchanged with the

Crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...

for other estates. In 1551 the manorial rights were granted by the young

Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour ...

to Thomas Darcy, Baron Darcy of Chiche. The manor descended with the Barons Darcy and earls of Rochford, until being sold by the fourth earl to

Richard Rigby Richard Rigby PC (February 1722 – 8 April 1788), was an English civil servant and politician who sat in the British House of Commons for 43 years from 1745 to 1788. He served as Chief Secretary for Ireland and Paymaster of the Forces. Rigb ...

in 1775 to pay debts. Since then, the rights have been sold numerous times. The Sokens formed a peculiar jurisdiction within the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

, with its own

ecclesiastical court An ecclesiastical court, also called court Christian or court spiritual, is any of certain courts having jurisdiction mainly in spiritual or religious matters. In the Middle Ages, these courts had much wider powers in many areas of Europe than ...

under the responsibility of a commissary appointed by the lord of the manor. This court dealt with a range of matters that has lessened over time. In earlier years it would have included dealing with disciplinary offences such as adultery, fornication and drunkenness. In later years it was limited to more administrative matters such as the proving of wills and granting of marriage licences. (In neighbouring parishes, this business would have been conducted in the court of the

Archdeacon of Colchester The Archdeacon of Colchester is a senior ecclesiastical officer in the Diocese of Chelmsford – she or he has responsibilities within her archdeaconry (the Archdeaconry of Colchester) including oversight of church buildings and some supervision, d ...

.) Much of the soken court's business was taken away by the

Probate Probate is the judicial process whereby a will is "proved" in a court of law and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased, or whereby the estate is settled according to the laws of intestacy in the sta ...

and

Matrimonial Causes Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...

acts of 1857. From the 16th century onwards, the court generally sat in Thorpe church. The last session was held in 1861. The last commissary was William Burgess, in office from 1823-1862. He was also

vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pr ...

of all three parishes.

Manorial Manorialism, also known as the manor system or manorial system, was the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of Europe, notably France and later England, during the Middle Ages. Its defining features included a large, sometimes forti ...

courts continued for a few decades more, until the late 19th century. Wood (1975) p.7

Notes

References

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sokens, The Tendring