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Ancestry Daily News
3/7/2002 - Archive
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Lancashire: Hundreds and Other Things |
Lancashire: Hundreds and Other Things
Of the four Lancashire CDs in the English Parish Records (EPR) series, three contain the term 'hundreds' in the title. Other EPR titles stick to county names, three mention dioceses, and Yorkshire has its 'ridings'—North, East, and West. (Riding is derived from an Old English word meaning third part, which explains why there never has been a 'south' riding.)
So what are 'hundreds'? Are there one hundred in a county? Do all counties have them?
The best way to begin is with a definition. Hundreds were sub-divisions of
shires and counties, each with its own court. They were judicial, military,
and taxation units that emerged before William the Conqueror. Domesday Book
is arranged by counties and hundreds. Size varied, but the basis for drawing
up the hundreds of a county was pretty much the same everywhere. It was an area
that comprised one hundred families, or one hundred 'hides.' A hide (also known
as a carucate) was a measure of land—the amount required by one free family
and its dependents. This amount of land was defined in turn as that which could
be tilled by one plough and a team of oxen in one year.
The hundred was a practical division of local administration for a very long
time. Genealogists encounter hundreds in directories; they are listed in the
county sections within Samuel Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of England; they
appear on maps. Among the records arranged this way are hearth taxes in the
late 1600s and militia records of the 1700s.
This ancient division is not found in every county. The four extreme northern
counties of Cumberland, Westmorland, Durham, and Northumberland, were broken
up into wards. On the eastern side of England, the equivalent of a hundred is
the wapentake, a term which the Danes brought with them. Wapentakes are found
in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland, and Yorkshire.
In several counties the hundred (or the wapentake) is a sub-division of a unit
that falls between it and the county. Yorkshire has its ridings, Lincolnshire
has three divisions (Lindsey, Kestevan, Holland); in the southeast, Kent has
62 hundreds within 5 'lathes' and Sussex has 66 hundreds within 6 'rapes.'
Lancashire had six hundreds. There is something from all six of them among these
CDs and the pairings make geographic sense (there are two hundreds on each of
three CDs, and the fourth covers general sources and part of Neighboring Westmorland).
Salford (contains Manchester) and West Derby (contains Liverpool) are the southern
two, Blackburn and Leyland are in the middle, Amounderness and Lonsdale, the
northern pair including the part of Lancashire across Morecambe Bay (now part
of Cumbria).
For comparison, Cornwall had nine hundreds, Essex had twenty, and Norfolk had
thirty-three. The smaller divisions reflect the larger number of people per
square mile and the greater fertility of the land.
You cannot be a genealogist without an interest in and an affection for maps
of all sorts. Sooner or later, you will need to know in which hundred a particular
parish is located, or which hundreds need to be searched to collect all entries
of one surname in one type of record. There are several ways to find information
about hundreds.
They are listed in the county essays within the Topographical Dictionary
of England, by Samuel Lewis (orig. pub. 1831, rep. by GPC in two volumes,
1998). This useful reference work is available on CD- ROM and is also available
online to Ancestry.com data and/or UK/Ireland Collection subscribers.
On the Web through GENUKI (www.genuki.org.uk)
use the search feature, putting 'hundred' into the box. There are a huge number
of results, but you may find a few worth exploring. Another route via GENUKI
is to go to the county section and select the topic 'maps' (not available for
every county). (For Lancashire the specific URL is www.genuki.org.uk/indexes/LANcontents.html)
Within the options is a list of links to maps, and some of these show the hundred
boundaries.
Sherry Irvine, CGRS, FSA (Scot) has been researching her British ancestry for
thirty years. She founded Interlink Bookshop and Genealogical Services (www.interlinkbookshop.com)
in 1988; she currently lectures in Canada and the United States and is president
of the Association of Professional Genealogists. You can e-mail Sherry with
suggestions for future British genealogy articles at sherryirvine55@myfamily.com.
She will not be able to send personal replies, but will feature some questions
in upcoming issues of the Ancestry Daily News. Sherry also regrets that
she is unable to assist with personal research. Sherry is also the author of:
Your Scottish Ancestry: A Guide for North Americans
www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=831&key=P1046
Your English Ancestry: A Guide for North Americans
www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=831&key=P1045
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