names in various parts of the kingdom upon any of those districts; but our experience teaches us that no such uniformity does, or ever did, exist. In the Jutish, or Saxon, kingdom of Kent the districts are called lathes, hundreds, and boroughs or townships. In Yorkshire (part of the A.-Saxon kingdom of Deira), and other northern counties, the divisions are designated by the names of trithings (vulgò ridings), wapentakes, and tithings. In Sussex (Sud-Seaxan) we find 'rapes;' and in the antient kingdom of Wessex (Pert-Seaxan) that district which in Kent is called a borough, vill, or township, is described as a tithing A tithing [eoding] and borough [buph] is one and the same thing; it is a district composed originally of ten freemen, heads of families, who are mutually buph, or sureties for each other to the king and his people. The term tithing (a tenth) denoting the number of householders of which it is composed, and borough (buph, a surety) the obligations and duties of its members. Thus while in Kent the head or chief of the district is called Dearod-bunh, or Buph-ealdon (head-borough or borsholder) the same officer is in other parts of the kingdom. denominated from the district over which he presides, a tithingman. Ten of these tithings or boroughs originally constituted the hundred, whose chief was denominated Dundɲeder-ealdon. The lath [L] is a division peculiar to Kent, and signifies an assembly, it is derived from the A.-Saxon zelaðian, to assemble. According to Spelman the lathe "est portio comitatus plures continens hundredos, seu wapentachia, suoquo olim subaudiens magistratui quem Ledgrevium appellabant" (is a portion of a county containing many hundreds or wapentakes, subject to its own magistrate who is called Læd-geneue, Lathereeve.)" The laws of K. Edward the Confessor afford so clear and interesting an account of these territorial districts, as they existed among our A.-Saxon ancestors, that we venture to think that a few extracts from that code will be not only interesting but instructive. LEGES REGIS EDWARDI CONFESSORIS. Quare Friðborgi constituti sunt. C. XXVIII. Cum autem viderunt quod aliqui stulti libenter forisfaciebant erga vicinos suos, sapienciores ceperunt consilium inter se, quomodo eos reprimerent, et sic imposuerunt justiciarios super quosque x. friðborgos, quos decanos possumus dicere, Anglice autem tyende-heued vocati sunt hoc est caput X. Isti autem inter villas inter vicinos tractabant causas, et secundum quod forisfacture erant emendaciones et ordinaciones faciebant, videlicet, de pascuis, de pratis, de messibus, de certacionibus inter vicinos, et de multis hujusmodi que frequenter insurgunt. Item. C. XXIX. Cum autem majores cause insurgebant, referebant eas ad alios majores justiciarios quos sapientes supradicti super eos constituerant, scilicet, super x. decanos, quos possumus vocare centenarios quia super centum friðborgos judicabant. Wherefore free Boroughs are constituted. c. XXVIII. When they saw that some foolish people willingly committed offences against their neighbours, the wise (pitena) took counsel together how they might repress them, and therefore they constituted justices over every X. freeboroughs, whom we may call deans (decani); but in English they are called tyende-heued (the head or chief over x.) They therefore adjudicate the causes which arise in their districts between their neighbours, and according to the offences impose compensations and satisfactions, viz. of feedings, pastures, mowings, disputes among neighbours, and of many other such matters which frequently arise. Also, C. XXIX. But when greater causes arose, they referred them to other superior justices, whom the aforesaid wise men had set over them, that is to say, over x. decanos (deans) which we may call hundredors, because they adjudicate over a hundred free boroughs. De Hundredis et Wapentagiis, et quare Wapentac vocatur. Ewenwich c. xxx. Everwichescire, NicholeThe cire, Notingehamscire, Leicestrewachten scire, Norhamtunescire, et usque With 203 ad Watlingestrete, et VIII milliaria ultra Watlingestrete, sub lege Anglorum. Et quod alii vocant hundredum supradicti comitatus vocant Wapentagium, et hoc non sine causa : cum enim aliquis accipiebat prefecturam wapentagii, die constituto, conveniebant omnes majores contra eum in loco ubi soliti erant congregari, et descendente eo de equo suo, omnes assurgebant contra eum, et ipse erigebat lanceam suam in altum, et omnes de lanceis suis tangebant hastam ejus, et sic confirmabant se sibi. Et de armis, faca dice quia arma vocant wappa, et taccare, Bout 12,3quod est confirmare. De Treinges et Wapentagiis et Hundredis. C. XXXI. Erant et alie potestates super wapentagiis quas trehingas vocabant, scilicet, terciam partem provincie, et qui super ipsam dominabantur treingref, ad quos deferebantur cause quando non poterant diffiniri in wapentagiis. Et quod Angli vocabant hundredum, isti vocant wapentagium. Et quod illi vocabant tria hundreda vel IIII vel plura, isti vocabant trehing 37 37In quibusdam vero provinciis, Anglice vocabatur Led, quod isti dicunt trithinge. Of Hundreds and Wapentakes, and wherefore it is called Wapentake. C. XXX. Forkshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, and as far as Watling-street, and VIII miles beyond Watlingstrete, are under the law of the Angles. And that which others call a hundred, the abovenamed counties call a wapentake, and that not without reason; for when any one accepts the government of the wapentake, on the day appointed all the elders assemble to meet him in the place where they are accustomed to be convened, and descending from his horse, they all rose up to meet him, and he lifted up his lance on high, and they all with their own lances touched his spear, and thus bound themselves to obey him. And of arms, which they call pappa (weapons), and taccape, which is to confirm. Of Trithings (Ridings), Wapentakes, and Hundreds. c. XXXI. And there were other jurisdictions over the wapentakes, which they called trithings, that is to say, the third part of a province, and they who ruled over it, the trithing-reeve, to whom were referred the causes which could not be decided in the wapentakes. And that which the Angles called hundred, these call a wapentake. And that which they called III or IIII, or more hundreds, these called a trithing 37 37 But in some provinces, in English, that is called lathe, which these call a trithing. Et quod trehinge non poterat diffiniri, in scira servabatur (ferebatur?) Quid sit Prepositus, et Prefectura, et quid Alderman, qui latine senior Populi sonat, et quam multipliciter vocabulum Prepositi distenditur. c. XXXII. Greve autem nomen est potestatis; apud nos autem nichil melius videtur esse quam prefectura. Est enim multiplex nomen; greve enim dicitur de scira, de wapentagiis, de hundredo, de burgis, de villis; et videtur nobis compositum esse e grið Anglice, quod est Pax Latine, et ve Latine, videlicet, quod debet facere grið, i. e. pacem, ex illis qui inferunt in terram. Ve, i. e. miseriam vel dolorem, summa auctoritate Domini nostri Jesu Christi dicentis "Ve tibi Bethsaida, ve tibi Corozaim." . . . . . et vocabantur ...... eldereman, non propter senectutem, sed propter sapienciam. (Ant. Laws and Institutes, pp. 196, 197.) And that which could not be decided in the trithing was reserved for (carried to?) the shire (county court). What is Prefect, and Prefecture, and what Alderman, which signifies in Latin, Elder of the People, and how the name Prefect is variously used. C. XXXII. Reeve also is a name of authority. But amongst us it seems to be nothing more than a prefecture. But the name is manifold, for a reeve is called of the shire, of wapentakes, of the hundred, of boroughs, of vills (townships). And to us it appears to be composed of grid in English, which is 'peace' in Latin. And Ve, Latin, that is to say, that he ought to make zid, i. e. peace, amongst those who come into his district. Ve, i. e recompence or punishment, by the high authority of our Lord. Jesus Christ, who spake-"Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! Woe unto thee, Corozaim!". . . . . . Also they are called aldermen, not on account of old age, but for their wisdom. In our note (ante p. 54) we have rejected as untenable the fanciful territorial district of the Mark (❤eance). It has, however, been insisted upon in a recent publication of an eminent antiquary (Kemble's Saxons in England); it is therefore due to him, and to our readers, that we explain the grounds upon which we have ventured to reject it. The earliest mention of the Mark (❤eance) which we have met with in the A.-Saxon laws, is in the code of Hlothare and Eadric, kings of Kent (A.D. 673-686), as follows: C. XV. Lip man cuman Feopmæð.. niht an his agenum hame. cepeman oppe odenne pe ro оfen Meance cuman. hine ponne hip mete Fede. he ponne ænigum mæn yfel zedo. je man þane odepne æt rihte zebrenze. oppe niht Fone-pуnce c. xv. If a man entertain a stranger for III nights at his own home, a chapman or any other who has come over the march, and then feed him with his own food, and he then do harm to any man, let the man bring the other to justice, or do justice for him. (Ant. Laws and Institutes, p. 14.) In the laws of Wihtræd, K. of Kent (A.D. 690-725), we find C. VIII. L man hir mæn an piofode freols gefe. re rie Folc-ný. neols-gera age hir enfe. ænde per-geld. munde pape hina. re open Meance pæn he pille. C. VIII. If any one give freedom to his man at the altar, let him be folk-free; let the freedom-giver have his heritage and per-geld, and the 'mund' of his family, be he over the march, wherever he may be. (Ibid., p. 17.) Upon the word 'Meance' the learned editor of these antient laws, in a note (p. 14), makes the following remarks, which we willingly transcribe : "This can hardly mean the marches or the boundaries of the kingdom of Kent, but rather the limits of the estate of the lord who had conferred the freedom. It is thus that, at a later period, a provision is made for taking a woman 'out of the land' on her marriage, but which is immediately explained to mean from one thane's land to that of another: Lip hy ponne ut of lande lædan pille on oðres þegnes land. &c.—If, however, they wish to take her off the land to another thane's land, &c.' The following passages, taken indiscriminately from various charters, seem to leave no doubt as to the import of the term in both laws : "Dir rind þa land-meanca to Bylizerdene-These are the landmarks (or boundaries) of Byligesdene." "Andlang par bunnan þær hit cymeð to Ospyder-meance 7 Eadpolder-Along the brook till it comes to Oswyth's boundary and Eadwolds.” Andlang Lpynn-bunnan þær |