200px, Pembrokeshire showing Narberth Hundred The Hundred of Narberth was a

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; cy, Sir Benfro ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and the rest by sea. The count ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. An administrative and legal division, it was formed by the Act of Union of 1536 from parts of the pre-

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

cantref A cantref ( ; ; plural cantrefi or cantrefs; also rendered as ''cantred'') was a medieval Welsh land division, particularly important in the administration of Welsh law. Description Land in medieval Wales was divided into ''cantrefi'', which were ...

s of Penfro (the

commote A commote (Welsh ''cwmwd'', sometimes spelt in older documents as ''cymwd'', plural ''cymydau'', less frequently ''cymydoedd'')''Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru'' (University of Wales Dictionary), p. 643 was a secular division of land in Medieval Wales ...

of Coedrath) and Cantref Gwarthaf (the commote of Efelfre).

Name

It derived its

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

name, Arberth, from the town and district of the same name, which means "(district) by the wood" (i.e. the forest of Coedrath), and which was the headquarters of the hundred.

Region

The hundred spanned the linguistic boundary, with the parishes of Velfrey being identified by George Owen as Welsh-speaking, and the southern coastal part being English-speaking, part of

Little England beyond Wales Little England beyond Wales is a name that has been applied to an area of southern Pembrokeshire and southwestern Carmarthenshire in Wales, which has been English in language and culture for many centuries despite its remoteness from England. I ...

. The area in 1887 was .

Demographics

The hundred incorporated twenty two

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

es. The parliamentary election polling book for 1812 is held at the National Library of Wales. The 1821 census provided detailed demographics for the hundred. The total population was 11,321, living in 2,249 properties. At the 1831 census, the hundred had a population of 11,942 in 2,343 houses. The population was quoted as 11,469 in an 1887 gazetteer. Land tax assessments for 1857 to 1949 are held at Pembrokeshire Archives.

Discontinuation

The hundred courts declined from the 17th century, and most of their powers were extinguished with the establishment of

county court A county court is a court based in or with a jurisdiction covering one or more counties, which are administrative divisions (subnational entities) within a country, not to be confused with the medieval system of ''county courts'' held by the high ...

s in 1867. Until 1974 Wales was divided into

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

es, which to some extent coincided with ecclesiastical parishes, and in 1975 it was divided into

communities A community is a Level of analysis, social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place (geography), place, Norm (social), norms, religion, values, Convention (norm), customs, or Identity (social science), identity. Communiti ...

. The jurisdiction of hundred courts was finally curtailed by the

Administration of Justice Act 1977 The Administration of Justice Act 1977 is an Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom, Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Part I - General Section 6 - Temporary additional judges for Employment Appeal Tribunal This section was repealed ...

References

{{Pembrokeshire hundreds History of Pembrokeshire Narberth, Pembrokeshire