the clergy, and for other pious purposes, according to his own difcretion. MR Camden" fays, England was divided into parishes by archbishop Honorius about the year 630. Sir Henry Hobart lays it down, that parishes were first erected by the council of Lateran, which was held A. D. 1179. Each widely differing from the other, and both of them perhaps from the truth; which will probably be found in the medium between the two extremes. For Mr Selden has clearly thewn, that the clergy lived in common without any divifion of parishes, long after the time mentioned by Camden. And it appears from the Saxon laws, that parishes were in being long before the date of that council of Lateran, to which they are afcribed by Hobart. WE find the diftinction of parishes, nay even of motherchurches, fo early as in the laws of king Edgar, about the year 970. Before that time the confecration of tithes was in general arbitrary; that is, every man paid his own (as was before obferved) to what church or parifh he pleafed. But this being liable to be attended with either fraud, or at least caprice, in the perfons paying; and with either jealoufies or mean compliances in fuch as were competitors for receiving them; it was now ordered by the law of king Edgar', that "dentur omnes decimae primariae ecclefiae ad quam parochia per"tinet." However, if any thane, or great lord, had a church, within his own demefnes, distinct from the mother church, in the nature of a private chapel; then, provided fuch church had a coemetery or confecrated place of burial belonging to it, he might allot one third of his tithes for the maintenance of the officiating minifter: but, if it had no coemetery, the thane must himself have maintained his chaplain by fome other means; for in fuch cafe all his tithes were ordained to be paid to the primariae ecclefiae or mother church2. THIS proves that the kingdom was then generally divided into parishes; which divifion happened probably not all at once, but by degrees. For it seems pretty clear and certain, that the boundaries of parishes were originally ascertained by those of a manor or manors: since it very feldom happens that a manor extends itself over more parishes than one, though there are often many manors in one parish. The lords, as chriftianity fpread itself, began to build churches upon their own demefnes or wastes, to accommodate their tenants in one or two adjoining lordships; and, in order to have divine fervice regularly performed therein, obliged all their tenants to appropriate their tithes to the maintenance of the one officiating minister, instead of leaving them at liberty to distribute them among the clergy of the diocese in general; and this tract of land, the tithes whereof were so appropriated, formed a diftinct parish. Which will well enough account for the frequent intermixture of parishes one with another. For, if a lord had a parcel of land detached from the main of his eftate, but not fufficient to form a parish of itself, it was natural for him to endow his newly erected church with the tithes of thofe disjointed lands; especially if no church was then built in any lordfhip adjoining to those outlying parcels. THUS parishes were gradually formed, and parish churches endowed with the tithes that arofe within the circuit affigned. But fome lands, either because they were in the hands of irreligious and carelefs owners, or were fituate in forefts and defart places, or for other now unfearchable reafons, were never united to any parish, and therefore continue to this day extraparochial; and their tithes are now by immemorial custom payable to the king instead of the bishop, in trust and confidence that he will distribute them for the general good of the church yet extraparochial waftes and marfh-lands, when improved and drained, are by the ftatute 17 Geo. II. c. 37. to be affeffed to all parochial rates in the parish next adjoining. And thus much for the ecclefiaftical divifion of this kingdom. 12 Inft. 647. 2 Rep. 44. Cro. Eliz. 512. I 2. THE 2. THE civil divifion of the territory of England is into counties, of thofe counties into hundreds, of thofe hundreds into tithings or towns. Which divifion, as it now stands, seems to owe it's original to king Alfred: who, to prevent the rapines and disorders which formerly prevailed in the realm, instituted tithings; fo called, from the Saxon, becaufe ́ten freeholders with their families compofed one. These all dwelt together, and were fureties or free pledges to the king for the good behaviour of each other; and if any offence was committed in their district, they were bound to have the offender forthcoming. And therefore antiently And therefore antiently no man was suffered to abide in England above forty days, unless he were enrolled in fome tithing or decennary. One of the principal inhabitants of the tithing is annually appointed to prefide over the rest, being called the tithing-man, the headborough, (words which speak their own etymology) and in fome countries the borfholder, or borough's-calder, being supposed the difcreetest man in the borough, town, or tithing". TITHINGS, towns, or vills, are of the fame fignification in law; and are faid to have had, each of them, originally a church and celebration of divine fervice, facraments, and burials: though that feems to be rather an ecclefiaftical, than a civil, diftinction. The word town or vill is indeed, by the alteration of times and language, now become a generical term, comprehending under it the several species of cities, boroughs, and common towns. A city is a town incorporated, which is or hath been the fee of a bishop: and though the bishoprick be dissolved, as at Westminster, (a) yet ftill it remaineth a city. A borough is now understood to be a town, either corporate or not, that fendeth burgeffes to parliament. Other towns there are, to the number fir Ed"fi, &c." Flet. 1. 47. This the laws of king Edward the confeffor, c. 20. very juítly entitled "fumma et maxima fecuritas, per 66 quam omnes ftatu firmiffimo fuftinentur ; -quae hoc modo fiebat, quod fub de"cennali fidejuffione debebant effe univer 66 c Mirr. c. 1. §. 3. d Finch. L. 8. e 1 Inft. 115. (4) This is rather an unapt example of the truth of the pofition; for Weftminster is not a borough incorporate. Hargave Co. Litt. 109. notes 2 and 3. See alfo the King v. Downs and another, 3 Term Rep. 560. ward Coke fays of 8803, which are neither cities nor boroughs; fome of which have the privileges of markets, and others not; but both are equally towns in law. To several of these towns there are small appendages belonging, called hamlets; which are taken notice of in the ftatute of Exeter', which makes frequent mention of entire vills, demi vills, and hamlets. Entire vills fir Henry Spelman* conjectures to have confifted of ten freemen, or frank-pledges, demi-vills of five, and hamlets of lefs than five. Thefe little collections of houfes are fometimes under the fame administration as the town itself, fometimes governed by feparate officers; in which laft cafe they are, to some purposes in law, looked upon as diftinct townships. These towns, as was before hinted, contained each originally but one parish, and one tithing; though many of them now, by the encrease of in habitants, are divided into several parishes and tithings; and, fometimes, where there is but one parish there are two or more vills or tithings. As ten families of freeholders made up a town or tithing, fo ten tithings composed a superior divifion, called a hundred, as confifting of ten times ten families. The hundred is governed by an high constable or bailiff, and formerly there was regularly held in it the hundred court for the trial of causes, though now fallen into difufe. In fome of the more northern counties thefe hundreds are called wapentakes'. THE fubdivifion of hundreds into tithings feems to be most peculiarly the invention of Alfred: the inftitution of hundreds themselves he rather introduced than invented. For they seem to have obtained in Denmark; and we find that in France a regulation of this fort was made above two hundred years before; fet on foot by Clotharius and Childebert, with a view of obliging each district to answer for the robberies committed in it's own divifion. Thefe divifions were, in that country, as well military as civil: and each contained a hundred freemen, who were subject to an officer called the centenarius; a number of which centenarii were themfelves 117 fubject to a superior officer called the count or comes". And indeed fomething like this inftitution of hundreds may be traced back as far as the antient Germans, from whom were derived both the Franks who became mafters of Gaul, and, the Saxons who fettled in England: for both the thing and the name, as a territorial affemblage of perfons, from which afterwards the territory itself might probably receive it's denomination, were well known to that warlike people. "Cente“ni ex fingulis pagis funt, idque ipfum inter fuos vocantur; et "quod primo numerus fuit, jam nomen et honor eft." AN indefinite number of these hundreds make up a county or fhire. Shire is a Saxon word fignifying a divifion; but a county, comitatus, is plainly derived from comes, the count of the Franks; that is, the earl, or alderman (as the Saxons called him) of the fhire, to whom the government of it was intrufted. This he ufually exercifed by his deputy, ftill called in Latin vice-comes, and in English, the sheriff, fhrieve, or fhire-reeve, fignifying the officer of the fhire; upon whom by process of time the civil administration of it is now totally devolved. In fome counties there is an intermediate divifion, between the fhire and the hundreds, as lathes in Kent, and rapes in Suffex, each of them containing about three or four hundreds apiece. Thefe had formerly their lathe-reeves and rape-reeves, acting in fubordination to the shire-reeve. Where a county is divided into three of thefe intermediate jurifdictions, they are called trithings, which were antiently governed by a trithing-reeve. Thefe trithings ftill fubfift in the large county of York, where by an eafy corruption they are denominated ridings; the north, the east, and the weft-riding. The number of counties in England. and Wales have been different at different times: at prefent they are forty in England, and twelve in Wales. THREE of thefe counties, Chefter, Durham, and Lancafter, are called counties palatine. The two former are fuch by prescription, or immemorial cuftom; or, at least as old as the Norman conqueft: the latter was created by king Edward III, in favour of Henry Plantagenet, firft earl and n Montefq. Sp. L. 30. 17. P LL. Edw. c. 34. q Seld. tit. hon. 2. 5. 8. Tacit. de morib. German. 6. |