CHAPTER IV 

 THE HUNDRED AND THE SHIRE 



BESIDES the vill and the manor, other divisions of land 

 are mentioned in Domesday Book the " hundred," the 

 " wapentake," and the "shire." All three terms were 

 used to signify collections of vills which were treated as units 

 for purposes of taxation, administration, and jurisdiction. Of 

 these three terms, " hundred " represented the smallest unit ; 

 and in the description of lands between the Mersey and the 

 Ribble, "manor" and "hundred" appear to be interchange- 

 able. Of Salford it is said, "To this manor or hundred 

 pertained, T. R. E., 2 1 berewicks, which were held by as many 

 thegns for as many manors." l The explanation of this 

 interchange of "manor" and "hundred" appears to lie in 

 the fact that all this territory had passed into the hands of 

 Roger of Poitou, who, to simplify the administration, had 

 treated each hundred as a single manor. 



The number of vills that went to form a hundred differed 

 greatly ; some hundreds were composed of two vills only. 

 Thus the hundred of Banbury was composed of the two vills 

 of Banbury and Cropredy, each of 50 hides ; other hundreds 

 comprised ten or fifteen vills ; the number depended on their 

 assessment. From his investigations into the assessment of 

 Cambridgeshire, as shown in the parallel accounts of the 

 Exchequer Domesday and the Cambridgeshire Inquest, Mr. 

 Round has deduced the " 5 -hide rule" that in the hidated 

 1 D. B., I. 270 a i. 

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