ToiDi, Townsliip and Tithing^ 153 



thus localize the Avord titJdng. Of this we see further evidence in the 

 Cartulary of the monastery of Gloucester. Vol. iii, No. 966, gives the items 

 in the view of frankijledge in the Court Leet of the manor; among which we 

 read: cle hiis qui sunt xii annonun, et non sunt in toethinga. From this 

 passage the tithing might apjjear to be a purely numerical group; but in 

 No. 1,011 we read: sunt tenentes in tethynga de Chirehesclona, where the 

 word tithing seems to have a clearly local value. 



The passage from the numerical to the territorial signification is an easy 

 one, and is illustrated by these jjassages. We see fi'om the passage above 

 cited that all boys of twelve were enrolled, not merely heads of families, 

 as is sometimes assumed ; and the same rule was observed in Anglo-Saxon 

 times, as is shown by the law of Canute (ii., 20 ofer xii ivintra). With the 

 growth and order of good government, so large a number of groups as this 

 came to be no longer necessary. Two centuries after the Conquest, we find 

 small toAvns containing but one tithing, and the largest only six, which may 

 perhaps have been divisions of its territory into wards or districts. From 

 this condition of things the purely territorial meaning of the word in some 

 parts of the country may easily have been derived. 



]\Iy object in this jpaper has been partly to trace the origin and powers of 

 the Euglish town ; partly to help to an understanding of its connection with 

 the New England town. New England being colonized at just about the 

 time that the parish organization was superseding that of the town in the 

 mother country, it would seem, as I have already said, that the colonists, 

 breaking away from the English ecclesiastical system, held to the town or- 

 ganization, making the parish purely secondary. The powers of the New 

 England towns do not differ very widely from those of the English towns . 

 We find, for example, in Russhemer, the " Implyments " of the money ob- 

 tained by the sale of church goods to have been enumerated as follows: 



towards the reparacioning of our churche - - - - xl s. 



ffurther to makyng of a pulpett & a lectern - . . - xxiij s. iiij d. 



also to the makying of a grett chest with locks - - - iij s. iiij d. 



Item to the pore peple of the parysshe - - - - - xx s. 



Also to the mondyng of the high weyes - . . . xxiij s. iiij d." 



East Anglier, July, 1887. 



In other cases we find: "for ssyendyng fforthe of v Souldeors to the 

 Kyngs_ Majesties warrs;"' "in the wallyng of their marssh, in costs & 

 chargs upon the havyn. And upon ther bulwerks of Gunnys. powder, & 

 shotte for the defense & safegard of the Ioaaii." : "to mainteyne a ffree 

 scoole," etc. 



These examples are taken from wliat I suppose to be small country vil- 

 lages, the prototyi^es of the New England to-wais. It may reasonably be 

 supposed, however, that the borouglis, or higher class of towns, would give 

 the example for the larger powers exercised by our more independent 

 towns; and I find in the East AngUan (1886-8) a series of extracts from the 

 records of the important town of Ipswich, as late as the time of the Com- 



