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 ...

or civil parish. 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 (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 Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

, ''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'', 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. 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, Kent had been settled by Jutes rather than Saxons, 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

Shire Shire is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries such as Australia and New Zealand. It is generally synonymous with county. It was first used in Wessex from the beginn ...

s, Kent grouped hundreds into '' lathes''.

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

, 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 Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, and Sussex, the equivalent term was a borgh, borow, or borough (not to be confused with '' borough'' in its more usual sense of a chartered or privileged town); their equivalent to the tithingman was therefore a ''borsholder'', ''borough-holder'' or ''

headborough In English law, the term headborough, head-borough, borough-head, borrowhead, or chief pledge, referred historically to the head of the legal, administrative, and territorial unit known as a tithing, which sometimes, particularly in Kent, Surrey ...

''.Dictionary definition of "Borsholder"
. Webster's Online Dictionary. Retrieved 19 January 2012. The Norman Conquest 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, civil parishes 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