Everything about Hundred Subdivision totally explained
A
hundred is a geographic division used in
England,
Denmark,
South Australia and some parts of the
USA,
Germany (
Southern Schleswig),
Sweden (and today's
Finland) and
Norway, which historically was used to divide a larger region into smaller administrative units. Alternative names include
wapentake,
Herred (Danish, Norwegian),
Härad (Swedish) and
Kihlakunta (
Finnish)
The name is derived from the number
one hundred and it may in some areas once have referred to a hundred men under arms—in
England, specifically, it has been suggested that it referred to the amount of land sufficient to sustain one hundred families defined as the land covered by one hundred "
hides", the smallest land unit defined by the Anglo-Saxons for taxation purposes.
It was a traditional
Germanic system described as early as AD
98 by
Tacitus (the
centeni). Similar systems were used in the traditional administrative regimes of
China and
Japan.
England
In
England a hundred was the division of a
shire for administrative, military and judicial purposes under the
common law(External Link
). Originally, when introduced by the
Saxons between
613 and
1017, a hundred had enough land to sustain approximately one hundred households headed by a
hundred-man or
hundred eolder. He was responsible for administration, justice, and supplying military troops, as well as leading its forces. The office wasn't hereditary, but by the
10th century the office was selected from among a few outstanding families.
Hundreds were further divided. Larger or more populous hundreds were split into
divisions (or in Sussex,
half hundreds). All hundreds were divided into
tithings, which contained ten households. Below that, the basic unit of land was called the
hide, which was enough land to support one family and varied in size from 60 to 120 old
acres, or 15 to 30 modern acres (6 to 12 ha) depending on the quality and
fertility of the land. Compare with
township.
Above the hundred was the
shire under the control of a shire-
reeve (or
sheriff). Hundred boundaries were independent of both parish and county boundaries, although often aligned, meaning that a hundred could be split between counties (usually only a fraction), or a parish could be split between hundreds.
The system of hundreds wasn't as stable as the system of counties being established at the time, and lists frequently differ on how many hundreds a county has. The
Domesday Book contained a radically different set of hundreds than that which would later become established, in many parts of the country. The number of hundreds in each county varied wildly.
Leicestershire had six (up from four at Domesday), whereas
Devon, nearly three times larger, had thirty-two.
Over time, the principal functions of the hundred became the administration of law and the keeping of the peace. By the
twelfth century the hundred court was held twelve times a year. This was later increased to being held fortnightly, although an ordinance of 1234 reduced the frequency to once every three weeks. In some hundreds, courts were held at a fixed place; while in others, courts moved with each sitting to a different location. The main duties of the hundred court were the maintenance of the
frankpledge system. Where the hundred was under the jurisdiction of the crown, the chief magistrate was a sheriff. However, many hundreds were in private hands, with the lordship of the hundred being attached to the principal
manor of the area and becoming hereditary. Where a hundred was under a lord, a
steward was appointed in place of a sheriff.
The importance of the hundred courts declined from the
seventeenth century, and most of the powers were extinguished with the establishment of
county courts in 1867. The remaining duty of the inhabitants of a hundred to make good damages caused by
riot was ended in 1886, when the cost was transferred to the county police rate. Although hundreds had no administrative or legal role after this date, they've never been formally abolished.
Groupings of hundreds were used to define
parliamentary constituencies from 1832 to 1885. On the redistribution of seats in 1885 a different county subdivision, the
petty sessional division was used.
By the
19th century several different single-purpose subdivisions of counties, such as
poor law unions,
sanitary districts, and
highway districts sprang up, filling the administrative role previously played by hundreds.
Several ancient hundred names give their name to modern
local government districts.
The Chiltern Hundreds
The
Chiltern Hundreds are notable as a
legal fiction, owing to a quirk of British Parliamentary law. A
Crown Steward was appointed to maintain law and order in the area, but the position's duties ceased to be required in the
16th century, and the holder ceased to gain any benefits during the
17th century. The position has since been used as a procedural device to allow
resignation from the House of Commons.
Other terms
A
wapentake is a term derived from the
Old Norse vápnatak (External Link), the rough equivalent of an
Anglo-Saxon hundred. The word denotes an administrative meeting place, typically a crossroads or a ford in a river. The origin of the word isn't known.
Folk etymology has it that voting would be denoted or conducted by the show of
weapons, an idea perhaps suggested by references in
The Germania of
Tacitus or current practice in the
Swiss canton of
Appenzell Innerrhoden. According to other authorities weapons were not flourished at a Norse þing and "weapon taking" or
vopnatak was the end of an assembly, when one was allowed to take weapons up again, providing another possible origin of the wapentake.
The
Danelaw counties of
Yorkshire,
Derbyshire,
Leicestershire,
Northamptonshire,
Nottinghamshire,
Rutland and
Lincolnshire were divided into wapentakes, just as most of the remainder of
England was divided into hundreds.
In Yorkshire, a Norse wapentake usually replaced several Anglo-Saxon hundreds. This process was complete by 1086 in the North and West
Ridings, but continued in the East Riding until the mid 12th century.
In some counties, such as Leicestershire, the wapentakes recorded at the time of the
Domesday Book evolved into hundreds later on. In others, such as
Lincolnshire, the term remained in use.
The term
ward was used in a similar manner in the four northern counties of
Cumberland,
Durham,
Northumberland and
Westmorland.
Lathes in
Kent and
rapes in
Sussex consisted of several hundreds, and filled some roles usually associated with hundreds.
In Wales the hundred replaced traditional units such as the
cantref (or cantred) or commote. Irish counties were divided into baronies.
Scandinavia
The term
hundare (hundred) was used in
Svealand (the core region of early
Sweden) and present-day
Finland. Eventually that division was superseded by introducing the
härad or
Herred, which was the name in the rest of Scandinavia. This word was either derived from
Proto-Germanic *
harja-raiðō (warband) or
Proto-Norse *
harja-raiða (war equipment, cf.
Wapentake)(External Link).
Hundreds were not organized in
Norrland, the northern sparsely populated part of
Sweden. Today the hundreds serve no administrative role in Sweden.
It isn't entirely clear when hundreds were organised in the western part of Finland. The name of the province of
Satakunta, roughly meaning
hundred, hints at influences from the times before the
Northern Crusades,
Christianization, and incorporation into Sweden.
United States
Counties in
Delaware,
New Jersey and
Pennsylvania were divided into hundreds in the
seventeenth century, in imitation of the British system. They survive in Delaware (see
List of Delaware Counties and Hundreds), and were used as tax reporting and
voting districts until the
1960s, but now serve no administrative role, their only current official legal use being in real-estate title descriptions.
(External Link)
The hundred was also used as a division of the county in
Maryland.
Carroll County, Maryland, was composed in
1836 by taking the following hundreds from
Baltimore County: North Hundred, Pipe Creek Hundred, Delaware Upper Hundred, Delaware Lower Hundred and from
Frederick County: Pipe Creek Hundred, Westminster Hundred, Unity Hundred, Burnt House Hundred, Piney Creek Hundred, and Taneytown Hundred.
Some plantations in early colonial
Virginia used the term hundred in their names, such as
Martin's Hundred, and Flowerdew Hundred.
Australia
In
South Australia land titles still record which hundred a parcel of land is located in. Similar to the notion of the
South Australian counties listed on the system of titles, hundreds are not generally used when referring to a district and are little known by the general population.
Cumberland County (
Sydney) was also divided into hundreds in the nineteenth century, although these were later repealed. A hundred is traditionally one hundred square miles.
(External Link)Further Information
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