In reding of ancient writers, as Cæsar, Tacitus, and others, we find
mention of sundrie regions to haue béene sometime in this Iland, as
the Nouantæ, Selgouæ, Dannonij, Gadeni, Oradeni, Epdij, Cerones,
Carnonacæ, Careni, Cornabij, Caledonij, Decantæ, Logi, Mertæ,
Vacomagi, Venicontes, Texali or Polij, Denani, Elgoui, Brigantes
Parisi, Ordouici aliàs Ordoluci, Cornauij, Coritani, Catieuchlani,
Simeni, Trinouantes, Demetæ, Cangi, Silures, Dobuni, Atterbatij,
Cantij, Regni, Belgæ, Durotriges, Dumnonij, Giruij, Murotriges,
Seueriani, Iceni, Tegenes, Casij, Cænimagni, Segontiaci, Ancalites,
Bibroci, and Kentishmen, and such like. But sith the seuerall places
where most of them laie, are not yet verie perfectlie knowne vnto the
learned of these daies, I doo not meane to pronounce my iudgement vpon
such doubtfull cases, least that in so dooing I should but increase
coniectures, and leading peraduenture the reader from the more
probable, intangle his mind in the end with such as are of lesse
value, and things nothing so likelie to be true, as those which other
men haue remembred and set downe before me. Neither will I speake
oughts of the Romane partitions, & limits of their legions, whose
number and place of abode, except of the Victorian and Augustane, is
to me vtterlie vnknowne.
[Sidenote: Alfred brought England into shires, which the Britons
diuided by cantreds, and the first Saxons by families.]
It shall suffice therfore to begin with such a ground as from whence
some better certeintie of things may be deriued, and that is with
the estate of our Iland in the time of Alfred, who first diuided
England into shires, which before his daies, and since the comming
of the Saxons, was limited out by families and hidelands, as the
Britons did the same in their time, by hundreds of townes, which
then were called cantreds; as old records doo witness.
Into how manie shires the said Alfred did first make this partition of
the Iland, it is not yet found out; howbeit if my coniecture be anie
thing at all, I suppose that he left not vnder eight and thirtie, sith
we find by no good author, that aboue fifteene haue beene added by
anie of his successours, since the time of his decease. This prince
[Sidenote: Shire and share all one.]
therefore hauing made the generall partition of his kingdome into
shires, or shares, he diuided againe the same into lathes, as lathes
into hundreds, and hundreds into tithings, or denaries, as diuers haue
written; and maister Lambert following their authorities, hath also
giuen out, saieng almost after this maner in his description of Kent;
"The Danes (saith he) both before, & in the time of king Alfred, had
flocked by the sea coasts of this Iland in great numbers, sometimes
wasting and spoiling with sword and fire, wheresoeuer they might
arriue, and somtime taking great booties with them to their ships,
[Sidenote: Englishmen noisome to their owne countrie.]
without dooing anie further hurt or damage to the countrie. This
inconuenience continuing for manie yéeres togither, caused our
husbandmen to abandon their tillage, and gaue occasion and hardinesse
to euill disposed persons, to fall to the like pillage, as practising
to follow the Danes in these their thefts and robberies. And the
better to cloake their mischeefe withall, they feigned themselues to
be Danish pirats, and would sometime come a land in one port, and
sometime in another, driuing dailie great spoiles (as the Danes had
doone) vnto their ships before them. The good king Alfred therefore
(who had maruellouslie trauelled in repelling the barbarous Danes)
espieng this outrage, and thinking it no lesse the part of a politike
prince, to root out the noisome subiect, than to hold out the forren
aduersarie: by the aduise of his nobilitie, and the example of Moses
(who followed the counsell of Iethro his father in law to the like
effect) diuided the whole realme into certeine parts or sections,
which (of the Saxon word Schyran, signifieng to cut) he termed shires,
or as we yet speake, shares, or portions, of which some one hath
fortie miles in length (as Essex) and almost so manie broad, Hereford
foure & twentie in length, and twentie in breadth, and Warwike six and
thirtie in length, &c: and some of them also conteine ten, twelue,
thirteene, sixtéene, twentie, or thirtie hundreds, more or lesse, as
some hundreds doo sixteene, twentie, thirtie, fortie, fiftie or sixtie
townes, out of which the king was alwaies to receiue an hundred able
men to serue him in the warres, or a hundred men able to be pledges,
[Sidenote: Earle and alderman.]
and ouer each of the portions he appointed either an earle or
alderman, or both, to whome he committed the gouernement of the same.
These shires also he brake into lesser parts, whereof some were called
lathes, of the word Gelathian, which is to assemble togither; other
hundreds, for that they enioied iurisdiction ouer an hundred pledges;
and other tithings, bicause there were in each of them to the number
of ten persons, whereof euerie one from time to time was suertie for
others good abearing. He prouided also that euerie man should procure
himselfe to be receiued into some tithing, to the end, that if anie
were found of so small and base a credit, that no man would become
pledge or suertie for him, he should forthwith be committed to prison,
least otherwise he might happen to doo more harme abroad. Hitherto
master Lambert." By whose words we may gather verie much of the state
of this Iland in the time of Alfred, whose institution continued after
a sort vntill the comming of the Normans, who changed the gouernement
of the realme in such wise (by bringing in of new officers and
offices, after the maner of their countries) that verie little of the
old regiment remained more than the bare names of some officers
(except peraduenture in Kent) so that in these daies it is hard to set
downe anie great certeintie of things as they stood in Alfreds time,
more than is remembred and touched at this present.
[Sidenote: What a lath is.]
Some as it were roming or rouing at the name Lath, doo saie that it is
deriued of a barne, which is called in old English a lath, as they
coniecture. From which spéech in like sort some deriue the word
Laistow, as if it should be trulie written Lath stow, a place wherein
to laie vp or laie on things, of whatsoeuer condition. But hereof as
yet I cannot absolutelie be satisfied, although peraduenture some
likelihood in their iudgements may séeme to be therein. Other vpon
some further consideration affirme that they were certeine circuits in
euerie countie or shire conteining an appointed number of townes,
whose inhabitants alwaies assembled to know and vnderstand of matters
touching their portions, in to some one appointed place or other
within their limits, especiallie whilest the causes were such as
required not the aid or assistance of the whole countie. Of these
[Sidenote: Léetes.]
lathes also (as they saie) some shires had more, some lesse, as they
were of greatnesse. (And M. Lambert séemeth to be of the opinion, that
the leets of our time wherein these pledges be yet called Franci
plegij of the word Free burgh) doo yeeld some shadow of that politike
institution of Alfred. But sith my skill is so small in these cases
that I dare not iudge anie thing at all as of mine owne knowledge, I
will not set downe anie thing more than I read, least I should roue at
randon in our obscure antiquities, and reading no more of lathes my
next talke shall be of hundreds.
[Sidenote: Hundred or wapentake.]
The hundred and the wapentake is all one, as I read in some, and by
this diuision not a name appertinent to a set number of townes (for
then all hundreds should be of equall quantitie) but a limited
iurisdiction, within the compasse whereof were an hundred persons
[Sidenote: Denarie or tithing.]
called pledges (as I said) or ten denaries, or tithings of men, of
which ech one was bound for others good abering, and laudable
behauiour in the common-wealth of the realme. The chiefe man likewise
of euerie denarie or tithing was in those daies called a tithing man,
[Sidenote: Tithing man in Latine Decurio Borsholder.]
in Latine Decurio, but now in most places a borsholder or burgholder,
[Sidenote: Burrow.]
as in Kent; where euerie tithing is moreouer named a burgh or burrow,
although that in the West countrie he be still called a tithing man,
and his circuit a tithing, as I haue heard at large. I read
furthermore (and it is partlie afore noted) that the said Alfred
caused ech man of frée condition (for the better maintenance of his
peace) to be ascribed into some hundred by placing himselfe in one
denarie or other, where he might alwais haue such as should sweare or
saie vpon their certeine knowledge for his honest behauiour and ciuill
conuersation if it should happen at anie time, that his credit should
come in question. In like sort I gather out of Leland and other, that
if anie small matter did fall out worthie to be discussed, the tithing
man or borsholder (now officers, at the commandement of the high
constable of which euerie hundred hath one at the least) should decide
the same in their léetes, whereas the great causes were referred to
the hundreds, the greater to the lathes, and the greatest of all to
the shire daies, where the earles or aldermen did set themselues, &
make finall ends of the same, according vnto iustice. For this purpose
[Sidenote: Twelue men.]
likewise in euerie hundred were twelue men chosen of good age and
wisedome, and those sworne to giue their sentences without respect of
person, and in this maner (as they gather) were things handeled in
those daies. Which waie the word wapentake came in vse, as yet I
cannot tell; howbeit the signification of the same declareth (as I
conceiue) that at the chiefe towne the soldiers which were to serue in
that hundred did méet, fetch their weapons, & go togither from thence
to the field, or place of seruice by an ordinarie custome, then
generallie knowen amongst them. It is supposed also that the word Rape
commeth a Rapiendo, as it were of catching and snatching, bicause the
tenants of the hundred or wapentakes met vpon one or sundrie daies &
made quicke dispatch of their lords haruest at once and in great hast.
But whether it be a true imagination or not as yet I am vncerteine,
and therefore it lieth not in me to determine anie thing thereof:
wherefore it shall suffice to haue touched them in this maner.
[Sidenote: Fortie shires in England, thirtéene in Wales.]
In my time there are found to be in England fourtie shires, and
likewise thirtéene in Wales, and these latter erected of late yeares
by king Henrie the eight, who made the Britons or Welshmen equall in
all respects vnto the English, and brought to passe that both nations
should indifferentlie be gouerned by one law, which in times past were
ordred by diuerse, and those far discrepant and disagreing one from
another: as by the seuerall view of the same is yet easie to be
discerned. The names of the shires in England are these, whereof the
first ten lie betwéene the British sea and the Thames, as Polydor also
dooth set them downe.
Kent.
Sussex.
Surreie.
Hampshire.
Barkeshire.
Wilshire.
Dorsetshire.
Summerset.
Deuon.
Cornewall.
There are moreouer on the northside of the Thames, and betwéene the
same and the riuer Trent, which passeth through the middest of England
(as Polydor saith) sixtéene other shires, whereof six lie toward the
east, the rest toward the west, more into the middest of the countrie.
Essex, somtime all forrest saue one hundred.
Middlesex.
Hartfordshire.
Suffolke.
Norffolke.
Cambrigeshire in which are 12 hundreds.
Bedford.
Huntingdon wherin are foure hundreds.
Buckingham.
Oxford.
Northampton.
Rutland.
Leircestershire.
Notinghamshire.
Warwike.
Lincolne.
We haue six also that haue their place westward towards Wales, whose
names insue.
Glocester.
Hereford.
Worcester.
Shropshire.
Stafford.
Chestershire.
And these are the thirtie two shires which lie by south of the Trent.
Beyond the same riuer we haue in like sort other eight, as
Darbie.
Yorke.
Lancaster.
Cumberland.
Westmerland.
Richemond, wherein are fiue wapentaxes, & when it is accompted as
parcell of Yorkeshire (out of which it is taken) then is it
reputed for the whole Riding.
Durham.
Northumberland.
So that in the portion sometime called Lhoegres, there are now fortie
shires. In Wales furthermore are thirtéene, whereof seuen are in
Southwales:
Cardigan, or Cereticon.
Penmoroke, or Penbrooke.
Caermardine, wherein are 9 hundreds or commots.
Glamorgan.
Monmouth.
Breckenocke.
Radnor.