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Revision as of 19:56, 1 November 2004
A hundred is an administrative division which historically was used to divide a larger region into smaller geographical units. The name is derived from the number hundred. It was a traditional Germanic system described as early as 98 AD by Tacitus (the centeni).
England
In England a hundred was the division of a shire for administrative, military and judicial purposes under the common law. Originally, when introduced by the Saxons, a hundred was supposed to contain approximately one hundred households headed by a hundred-man; it was further divided into tithings, which likewise contained ten. Compare with township. Above the Hundred was the Shire under the control of a Shire-reeve (or sheriff). Hundreds remained in existence into the late 19th century.
The number of hundreds in each county varied wildly. Leicestershire had six, whereas Devon, nearly thrice as vast, had thirty-five.
Several ancient hundred names give their name to modern local government districts.
Scandinavia
In the Scandinavian countries hundreds were used in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. In Danish and Norwegian the division was called herred and in Swedish the names härad and hundare was used. In Sweden Götaland had the division härad while Svealand had hundare, but eventually that division was superceded by introducing the härad in Svealand. The härad was also introduced in Finland, but not in Norrland, the eastern and northern parts of Sweden respectively. The name refer to the number hundred and is example of a common form of division used among Germanic peoples. In Sveland it may once have referred to a hundred men under arms, that were raised and supported by the inhabitants of the hundred.
United States of America
The hundred was also used as a division of the county in some of the English colonies in North America. Carroll County, Maryland, was composed in 1836 by taking the follwoing 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.
See also
References
This article contains content from the Owl Edition of Nordisk familjebok, a Swedish encyclopedia published between 1904 and 1926, now in the public domain.
