Hundred

In English law

A division of a county, which some make to have originally consisted of one hundred hides of land; others of ten tithings, or one hundred free families. It differed in size in different parts of England.

1 Steph. Comm. 122.

In many cases, when an offense is committed within a hundred, the inhabitants are liable to make good the damage if they do not produce the offender.

See 12 East, 244.

This system was probably introduced by Alfred (though mentioned in the Poenitentiae of Egbert, where it seems to be the addition of a later age), being borrowed from the continent, where it was known to the Franks, under the name centena, in the sixth century. See Charlemagne, Cap. lib.

3, c. 10.

It had a court attached to it, called the "hundred court," or "hundred lagh," like a court baron, except in its larger territorial jurisdiction. It was governed by the hundredary (hundredarius).

9 Coke, 25.

The jurisdiction of this court has devolved upon the county courts. Jacob; Du Cange. Hundred penny was a tax collected from the hundred by its lord or by the sheriff. Hundred setena signified the dwellers in the hundred. Charta Edg. Reg. Mon. Angl. torn.

1, p. 16.