The Collaborative International Dictionary
Socage \Soc"age\, n.[From Soc; cf. LL. socagium.] (O.Eng. Law) A tenure of lands and tenements by a certain or determinate service; a tenure distinct from chivalry or knight's service, in which the obligations were uncertain. The service must be certain, in order to be denominated socage, as to hold by fealty and twenty shillings rent. [Written also soccage.]
Note: Socage is of two kinds; free socage, where the
services are not only certain, but honorable; and
villein socage, where the services, though certain,
are of a baser nature.
--Blackstone.
Usage examples of "free socage".
Above all, the owner of the soil could still hold his head high as the veritable Socman of Minstead--that is, as holding the land in free socage, with no feudal superior, and answerable to no man lower than the king.