A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten

hides __NOTOC__ Hide or hides may refer to: Common uses * Hide (skin), the cured skin of an animal * Bird hide, a structure for observing birds and other wildlife without causing disturbance * Gamekeeper's hide or hunting hide or hunting blind, a stru ...

(and hence, one tenth of a hundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a

manor Manor may refer to: Land ownership *Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England *Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism *Man ...

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

. The tithing's leader or spokesman was known as a '' tithingman''.

Etymology

The noun ''tithing'' breaks down as ''ten'' + ''thing'', which is to say, a

thing Thing or The Thing may refer to: Philosophy * An object * Broadly, an entity * Thing-in-itself (or ''noumenon''), the reality that underlies perceptions, a term coined by Immanuel Kant * Thing theory, a branch of critical theory that focus ...

(an assembly) of the households who live in an area that comprises ten hides. Comparable words are Danish ''herredthing'' for a hundred, and English ''

husting A husting originally referred to a native Germanic governing assembly, the thing. By metonymy, the term may now refer to any event (such as debates or speeches) during an election campaign where one or more of the candidates are present. Deve ...

'' for a single household. Sound changes in the prehistory of English are responsible for the first part of the word looking so different from the word ''ten''. In the West Germanic dialects which became Old English, ''n'' had a tendency to

elide In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run toget ...

when positioned immediately before a ''th''. The noun is not to be confused with the verb ''to

tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques or more ...

'', its present participle ''tithing'', nor the act of ''tithing'', though they partly share the same origin.

History

The term originated in the 10th century, when a tithing meant the households in an area comprising ten hides. The heads of each of those households were referred to as ''tithingmen''; historically they were assumed to all be males, and older than 12 (an adult, in the context of the time). Each ''tithingman'' was individually responsible for the actions and behaviour of all the members of the tithing, by a system known as

frankpledge Frankpledge was a system of joint suretyship common in England throughout the Early Middle Ages and High Middle Ages. The essential characteristic was the compulsory sharing of responsibility among persons connected in tithings. This unit, under ...

. If a person accused of a crime was not forthcoming, his tithing was fined; if he was not part of the frankpledge, the whole town was subject to the fine. Unlike areas dominated by

Wessex la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons , common_name = Wessex , image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg , map_caption = S ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

had been settled by Jutes rather than

Saxons The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country ( Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the No ...

, and retained elements of its historical identity as a separate and wealthy kingdom into the Middle Ages. While Wessex and Mercia eventually grouped their hundreds into Shires, Kent grouped hundreds into '' lathes''. Sussex, which had also been a separate kingdom, similarly grouped its hundreds into '' rapes''. The different choice of terminology continued to the level of the tithing; in Kent, parts of Surrey, and Sussex, the equivalent term was a borgh, borow, or borough (not to be confused with ''

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle ...

'' in its more usual sense of a chartered or privileged town); their equivalent to the tithingman was therefore a ''borsholder'', ''borough-holder'' or '' headborough''.Dictionary definition of "Borsholder"
. Webster's Online Dictionary. Retrieved 19 January 2012. The

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conq ...

introduced the feudal system, which quickly displaced the importance of the hundred as an administrative unit. With the focus on manorial courts for administration and minor justice, tithings came to be seen as subdivisions of a

. The later break-down of the feudal system did not detract from this, as the introduction of Justices of the Peace lead to petty sessions displacing many of the administrative and judicial functions of the manorial courts. By

the Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

civil parishes In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

had replaced the manor as the most important local administrative concept, and tithings came to be seen as a parish subdivision. Frankpledge eventually evolved into both the Jury system and the petty constabulary, but tithings themselves had lost their practical significance, and fell into disuse. Despite this, active tithings continued to be found in some parts of rural England well into the 19th century, and tithings and hundreds have never been formally abolished.

Etymology

History

References

Further reading