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Revision as of 08:36, 26 July 2005 by Commander Keane (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)A hundred is an administrative division, frequently used in Europe and the West, which historically was used to divide a larger region into smaller geographical units. The name is derived from the number one hundred. 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. 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 was not hereditary, but by the 10th century the office was selected from among a few outstanding families.
Hundreds were further 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 (60,000 to 120,000m²) 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). Hundreds remained in existence into the late 19th century.
The number of hundreds in each county varied wildly. Leicestershire had six, whereas Devon, nearly three times larger, had thirty-two. Several ancient hundred names give their name to modern local government districts.
Scandinavia
In the Scandinavian countries hundreds were used in Sweden (with Finland), 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In Sweden Götaland had the division härad while Svealand had hundare, but eventually that division was superseded by introducing the härad in Svealand. Hundreds were not organized in Norrland, i.e. the northern sparsely populated part of Sweden. It is possible that hundreds were organised in Finland even in pre-Christian times (i.e. before annexation by Sweden). The name of the province of Satakunta (roughly meaning Hundred) hints to this direction.
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, especially in Maryland and in Delaware. 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.
Wapentake
A wapentake is a term derived from the Old Norse, the rough equivalent of an Anglo-Saxon hundred. The word denotes an administrative meeting place, typically a crossroads or a ford in a river where attendance or voting would be denoted or conducted by the show of weapons.
The 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 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.
Wapentake is also the title of a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
See also
- Attundaland
- Chiltern Hundreds
- Fjärdhundraland
- Leidang
- Roslagen
- Tiundaland
- Wapentake
- Traditional administrative systems
- Feudal measurement
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.
