the name of a class or rank of people among the Anglo-Saxons, consisting of those who had been slaves, but had either purchased, or by some other means obtained, their liberty. Though these were in reality free men, they were not considered as of the same rank and dignity with those who had been born free, but were still in a more ignoble and dependent condition, either on their former masters or on some new patrons. This custom the Anglo-Saxons seem to have derived from their ancestors in Germany, among whom those who had been made free did not differ much in point of dignity or importance in the state from those who continued in servitude. This distinction between those who had been made free and those who enjoy freedom by descent from a long race of free men, still prevails in many parts of Germany; and particularly in the original seats of the Anglo-Saxons. Many of the inhabitants of towns and cities in England, in this period, seem to have been of this class of men, who were in a kind of middle state between slaves and freemen.