ENGLAND. 



669 



Division in- 

 to hundreds 

 in the time 

 of Alfred. 



Statistics, district round Sheffield; Richmondshire in the north 

 **" "Y""' riding, and Houdenshire, in the east riding of York- 

 shire ; Hexamshire and Bamboroughshire in Northum- 

 berland; and Norhamshire and Islandshire, which com- 

 prehend those parts of the county of Durham, that are 

 separated by Northumberland from the body of that 

 county. Parts of several other counties, as well as Dur- 

 ham, lie detached : this is very remarkably the case 

 with Worcestershire. 



The next inferior division is that of hundreds. The 

 institution of this division seems rather to have been 

 introduced into England than invented in it; and there 

 is reason to believe, that the Saxons, in the southern 

 part of the island, first introduced it, though this insti- 

 tution, like all the rest, which related to the due ad- 

 ministration of justice, has generally been ascribed to 

 Alfred. 



It is uncertain, whether the appellation of hundreds 

 was given to these divisions, because they contained a 

 hundred persons; a hundred heads of families ; or, as 

 some suppose, a hundred farms ; it is, however, most 

 probable, that each hundred contained one hundred 

 heads of families, of freemen. That the hundreds were 

 regulated by population, is evident from the great num- 

 ber of hundreds in those counties that were first peo- 

 pled by the Saxons, or which, from their local situa- 

 tion, were least exposed to the devastation of war, or 

 from their natural fertility, were most likely to attract, 

 and most capable of supporting a great number of in- 

 habitants ; while, on the contrary, those counties, which 

 were gained by the Saxons at a later period, which 

 were held by them on a precarious tenure, and conti- 

 nually liable to invasion, or which %vere naturally bar- 

 ren and uninviting, contain comparatively very few 

 hundreds. Thus, in Kent and Sussex, according to 

 Domes<lay Book, there were at the period, when that 

 survey took place, respectively 62, and 64 hundreds, 

 the same number which they contain at present ; Nor- 

 folk, though in size only about the fifth county in 

 the kingdom, contains 660 parishes ; a greater num- 

 ber than any other county ; and 33 hundreds. Suffolk 

 contains 575 parishes; and Essex 41.5 parishes ; where- 

 as in Lancashire there are only six hundreds; in Che- 

 shire seven; in Corn wall nine; in Northumberland seven 

 divisions, which correspond to hundreds; and in Cum- 

 berland five. In some counties there are hundreds that 

 do not exceed a square mile in area, nor contain more 

 than 1000 persons; the hundreds of Lancashire, on the 

 contrary, average 300 square miles ; and the population 

 hi one of them, Salford hundred, is above 250,000. 



In order to remedy the inconvenience resulting from 

 this circumstance, in the reign of Henry VIII. the 

 small hundreds were united, to form divisions, limits, 

 or circuits, while the larger hundreds were partitioned 

 into smaller portions. 



In the northern parts of England, the counties were 

 not divided into hundreds, but into wards and wapen- 

 takes : the former still being the divisions of Cumber- 

 land, Westmoreland, Northumberland, and Durham ; 

 and the latter of Yorkshire. Wards were so called, 

 from the inhabitants of each division being, in ancient 

 times, obliged to keep watch or ward, against the ir- 

 ruptions of the Scots or Picts. The term wapentake is 

 evidently synonymous with mcnpon-tiike, and was given 

 to the divisions of Yorkshire from the same circum- 



The subdivision of hundreds into tithings is un- 

 doubtedly owing to Alfred. " In ancient times, it was 

 ordained, for the more sure keeping of the peace, that 



Many in 

 ionic coun- 

 ties, ::; d 

 very few in 

 there. 



This, in 

 tome inn- 

 sure, reme- 

 died by 

 Henry 

 VJII. 



Wards and 



Wapcn- 

 takes 



Subdivi- 

 sions into 

 Btlimga by 



Mtlunga 

 Alfred. 



all free-born men should cast themselves into several 

 companies, by ten in each company ; and that every 

 one of these ten men should be surety and pledge for 

 the forth-coming of his fellows : for which cause, these 

 companies in some places were called tithings ; and as 

 ten times ten make a hundred, so, because it was also 

 appointed that ten of these tithings should, at certain 

 times, meet together for matters of greater weight; 

 therefore that general assembly was called a hundred." 



One of the principal inhabitants of the tithing, who 

 was called the tithing-man, or head-borough, and in 

 some counties the borsholder, or boroughs- ealder, was 

 annually appointed to preside over the rest, and to 

 take care of their interests. Tithings are seldom men- 

 tioned now, except in legal proceedings, or in topogra- 

 phical descriptions. 



In Lincolnshire another species of division exists, 

 called Sokes. Soke, sole, soc, or soka, according to 

 Bracton, signifies " the power of administering justice, 

 and the territory or precinct in which the chief lord 

 did exercise his soke, his liberty of keeping court, or 

 holding trials within his own soke or jurisdiction." 



Although parishes were originally ecclesiastical divi- 

 sions, yet now they may be properly considered as co- 

 ming under the class of civil divisions ; and, consequent- 

 ly, claim our attention under that head. It is not easy 

 to determine how ancient the division of England into 

 parishes is : they are mentioned so early as in the laws 

 of King Edgar, about the year 970 ; but from what 

 occurs relating to them in these laws, it is plain that 

 they were gradually formed. They were originally of 

 the same extent as manors, since it very seldom hap- 

 pens that a manor extends itself over more parishes 

 than one, though there are often many parishes in one 

 manor. The parochial division of England was nearly 

 the same in Edward First's time, 1288-1292, as it is at 

 present. 



Parishes are frequently intermixed with one another. 

 This seems to have arisen from the lord of the manor 

 having had a parcel of land detached from the main 

 part of his estate, but not sufficient to form a parish of 

 itself. It was natural for him to endow the church 

 which he had erected on his principal estate with the 

 tithes of these disjointed lands ; especially if it happen- 

 ed, that no church was then built in any lordship ad- 

 joining to these lands. 



The settling of the bounds of parishes depends on 

 immemorial custom ; though it is probable, that they 

 were not settled with very exact and minute precision 

 till the passing of the poor laws, when, in consequence 

 of the claims of relief from their particular parishes, 

 which these laws gave to the poor, it became a matter 

 of serious consequence to define exactly the limits of 

 each parish. They cannot now be altered, but by le- 

 gislative enactment. 



As it was found, that in the northern counties, where 

 the parishes extended thirty or forty square miles, 

 the poor laws coidd not be duly administered, a law 

 was passed in the 13th of Charles II. permitting town- 

 ships and villages, though not entire parishes, to main- 

 tain their own poor. Hence townships, in the north of 

 England, may be regarded as divisions subordinate to 

 parishes, and are as distinctly limited as if they were 

 separate parishes. 



Towns originally contained but one parish ; but ma- 

 ny of them now, from the increase of inhabitants, are 

 divided into several parishes. 



Besides parishes, or townships, there are places which 

 are deemed extra-parochial, or not within the limits of 



Statistics. 



Parishes 



Mentioned 

 A. D. 970. 



Frequently 

 intermixed. 



Boundaries 

 fixed. 



Regulations 

 respecting 



j'o W ,"f J*. 

 j,_ 



Extra-pare- 



