CHAPTER XIII

THE SAXON PERIOD (PART II)

HUNDRED AND SHIRE COURT-CHRISTIANITY IN MIDDLESEX-EXTENT OF THE DIOCESE AND EAST SAXON KINGDOM-ORIGIN OF THE TERM MIDDLESEXNORTHERN BOUNDARY OF THE COUNTY-MOATED SITES

The Hundred and Shire Courts of Middlesex, and Places of Meeting.

`HE main features of the Hundred Court were briefly as follows. Once a

convene and meeting off the court

or mootgemot, over which, twice a year the Sheriff (Scir-reeve or Mootgerefa) or his deputy (Gingra) would preside for view of frankpledge, i.e., to see that the decaniae or tythings were full. In early Norman times the assembly was attended, doubtless in pursuance of former Saxon custom, by lords of land or their stewards, also by the priest, reeve and four substantial men from each vill in the Hundred, from whom twelve were appointed to act as judges of facts.' The court represented the civil and criminal jurisdiction of the King, tried criminals, settled civil disputes and witnessed transfers of land. The sheriff accounted for the profits and fines from the Hundred, for its organization possessed a fiscal importance as forming a rateable division of the County. The Hundreds-ealdor with his tything men appear to have acted rather as bailiffs of the Court, to enforce its orders, arrest thieves, and to report whether the tythings of ten men were full, for every man had to be in a tything or frankpledge. In some places, side by side with the Hundred Court, were liberties or districts, within which the King by charter had granted, mostly into ecclesiastical hands, the execution and profits of jurisdiction.3

...

"At the Sheriff's tourn every six months, each vill was represented by its reeve and four men, or each tything by its tything men the articles of view were, frankpledge, grave and minor misdeeds, the stopping of water courses and roads, brawls, assize of bread and beer, etc." "Hist. Eng. Law," 546, Pollock and Maitland.

"Let every man seek the Hundredgemot in such a manner as was arranged aforetime." "Edgar," iii, 5. From this it is clear that the Hundred Court was a pre-existing institution in A.D. 959.

2 "Const. Hist.," Stubbs, i, 116 et seq.

3 Idem. p. 119. Practically a Hundred Court in private hands. This must have been the case with the Cashio Hundred now in Herts which belonged to St. Albans. Under its jurisdiction would be the Middlesex vills of Barnet, Finchley, Hornsey, and the strip of land to

In Middlesex this with other privileges had been given by the Confessor to the Abbot of St. Peter's over the possessions of that abbey.' They included inter alia:

Saka and socn, or the administration of justice in the Hundred court of the King: was, viz., house breaking, forcible entry, trial and sentence on thieves arrested within, or from without the jurisdiction, etc. The appropriation of fines, e.g., for neglect of military service, blood shedding, relieving outlaws, purchase and sale in the same market, adultery, defamation and the hanging of offenders without trial and judgment: Taking of tything fees at the half yearly view of frankpledge, and for the vouching of property (team): Cognisance over the stopping of ways and water courses, and the regulation of the sale of ale and bread: Taking of tolls from markets (tol or theloneum) together with proprietory rights over land, water, woods (e.g., the taxing of horned beasts turned out to graze, like scriptura in the Roman age), commons, meadows, fish-ponds, mills, etc.

Two centuries later the Abbot of St. Peter's was summoned to answer the King by what warrant he claimed to hold these pleas of the Crown, and to have free warren, market fair, toll, gallows, chattels of condemned persons and fugitives, prison, fines, redemptions, amerciaments of his men and tenants, return of writs, assize of bread and ale, etc., in Eia, Teddington, Knightsbridge, Greenford, which included Hanwell, Chelsea, Brentford, Paddington, Yeoveney, Laleham, Hampstead, Ashford, Staines, Halliford, Westbourne, Shepperton and in Westminster."

The Abbot replied that Eia, Knightsbridge, Chelsea, Brentford, Paddington, Hampstead and Westbourne are members of the vill of Westminster: that Yeoveney, Laleham, Ashford, Halliford, and Shepperton are members of Staines: that in Westminster and Staines and their members, and also in Teddington and Greenford (which covered Hanwell) he claimed to plead all the pleas that the Sheriff of the King pleaded in the County court, except appeals and outlawries: that King Henry III had confirmed to St. Peter's at Westminster, and to the monks there serving God, all their tenements, and commanded that they should hold them with all liberties and free customs, with saka and socn, tol and team, infan and utfangenthef, etc. Wherefore the Abbot claimed to have pleas of the Crown and gallows, and also view of frankpledge everywhere except in Brentford where he claimed nothing."

London Stone, possessions of that abbey, which were omitted from Domesday as they had been forfeited by King William and were then at his disposition.

1 See Charters C.D. 824, 5: and B. 855 7, 8.

2 "Pleas de Quo Warranto," Middx. 22, Ed. I, roll 39.

* The ancient and historic Bregantforda was a chapelry in Saxon times and a hamlet within the vill of Hanwell and Hundred of Helethorne. In 22 Ed. I it belonged to St. Helen's priory, Bishopsgate Street. Strange to say since 14 Chas. II, C. 12, this ancient place has been known as New Brentford, after becoming a new or separate township maintaining its own poor apart from Hanwell. The adjoining hamlet on the riverside in the manor of Ealing

In Saxon times the Hundred Court held its sittings in the open air, and the place of meeting often gave the name by which the Hundred was known. In Middlesex, the Hundred of Honeslawe (Hounslow) derived its name from a small artificial hill known as "Hones-klaw," or the "hounds' mound," which formerly stood by the side of the Bath road on Smallbury green. It was one of the botontini or landmarks of the long forgotten Roman survey of the Middlesex district."

Ossulvestane Hundred took its name from Oswulf's stone, a Roman boundary mark, which stood where Watling and Tamesis Streets cross (Edgware Road and Oxford Street). This ancient stone is shown on Rocques' map as the “place where soldiers were shot," but it disappeared when the Marble Arch was removed to its present site. The Hundreds of Spelethorne and Helethorne derived their names. from two venerable and once well-known thorn trees, around which the assemblies were held, viz., Spelethorne, "the tree of speech," appropriately so named when the discussions were thorny: and Helethorne "the sheltering, or wide-spreading thorn." Though their sites are unknown, the former may provisionally be placed by Tamesis Street on Hounslow Heath, which was of considerable extent in bygone times, and the latter possibly grew near the ancient British way leading to Uxbridge.

Within the Hundred of Gara (now Gore) are several place names indicating ancient warfare, while "Gara" itself signifies the "rush of spears." It is likely that its assembly met on Redhill- "Raedhill-the hill of counsel or deliberation " -situated in Kingsbury, and by the side of Watling Street. Delmetone Hundred

within the vill of Fulham and Hundred of Ossulton, which at the time of the Civil War only consisted of a few small houses and a fishery, and without a church, has, per contra, since 1662 been distinguished as Old Brentford.

1 These mounds, of which many still exist in the Romanized parts of Britain, were about the size of a haystack. They have received various names in ignorance of their true significance, e.g., "Boadicea's tomb"! by Parliament Hill, Hampstead, and at Stanmore: "Salt Hill," Slough: "Tothill," in Westminster, and at Teddington, hence its early name of Totyngton. Lawford," near Manningtree, is the "ford by the klaw" or small mound. As regards the Westminster "Tothill," see article by the writer in "The Builder," Dec. 22,

1911.

* It is possible that Hyde Park orators occupy to-day almost the same spot as was used in past ages for the assembly of the Hundred.

* In Southall there was, up to a few years ago, a field lying to the north of Hayes Bridge on the Uxbridge Road, and known as Hell-thorn," the hedge of which showed that the hawthorn grew luxuriantly there. This is probably a corruption from "Hele-thorne," a spreading or covering thorn tree. A footway runs by it and continues over the canal and the Yedding brook, doubtless forming part of the British trackway through Hillen-dun. Here possibly we have the place where the old Saxon Hundred Court assembled in the open air, to transact its business under the protecting shade of a venerable thorn tree of great size, and from which the Hele-thorne, now Elthorne, Hundred derived its name. Other Hundreds are named from trees, e.g., Copthorne, Surrey: Edwinstree, Herts: Wixantree, Beds: Appletree and Skyraek (Shireoak), Derbyshire: barrows, dykes and heaths often gave the name. See list in "Const. Hist.," Stubbs, i, 115; "Words and Places," Taylor, 197.

T

(Edmonton) presents a difficulty, for neither is the origin of its name known, nor the place where its Hundred Court met. It may be derived from a personal name, possibly from that of Adelmund, or Athelmund dux, who in A.D. 792 was a witness to a St. Alban's charter signed by Offa (C.D. 161: B. 264) which King (A.D. 75796) says Dugdale (Monas. II, 217) gave to that Abbey the vills of Enfield and Edmonton (Adelmetone).1

The Shiregemot or moot of a County met every six months for civil and criminal business, and in some respects was an appellate court from that of the Hundred. It was ruled by the Shirereeve, together with the Bishop for spiritual matters, and the Ealdorman who led the fyrd or militia furnished by the Hundreds of the County." The Sheriff was the King's steward, and sat as the judicial president of the County, and with the Ealdorman had a share in the profits from the administration. The meeting like that of the Hundred was attended by the lords of land or their stewards, and by the reeve and four men representing each vill or tonship to acquit the vill of its suit. "In ecclesiastical matters the shire had the same indefinite status which belonged to the Hundred" and it also attended to the assessments upon the County, the militia contingents, and to the provision of ships. Under a law of Ethelred (A.D. 978-1016) every 300 hides, presumably geld hides, had to provide a ship towards the fleet to protect the coast from the raids of Danish pirates-every ten hides a boat, and every eight hides a helmet and breast plate. Lastly there was the "customary service of one fully armed man for each five hides" (geld). On a geldage of 1,000,* Middlesex would have contributed towards 33 ships, 100 boats, 125 suits of armour, and 200 armed men."

Tradition has it that the Shiregemot for the County of Middlesex, met at Parliament Hill, Hampstead. Its predecessor, the Roman curia or senate, consisting when full probably of 100 curiales or decurions undoubtedly assembled in Londinium the mother town of the local Canton. But in Saxon times, London

1 In A.D. 790. Aethelmund princeps, probably the same individual, witnessed a charter by Offa granting land in Middlesex to the Church at Canterbury, C.D. 159: B. 265. He was evidently a person of position, possibly ealdorman for the province of Middlesex, and residing at Edmonton, formerly Adelmetone. Aethel and Aedel are equivalent in sound. Delmetone (Edmunds' ton) Hundred derived its name from the vill of Adelmetone (Edmonton)—Aethel Aedel = Edel.

Let the Bishop and Ealdorman of the shire be present and let both of them expound God's law and the world's law. "Laws of Edgar.'

3 "Const. Hist.," Stubbs, i, 131, 118, 128. "Sax. Chron.," A.D. 1008.

Adding to the Domesday total that of the omitted Finchley district, the geldage would have amounted to nearly 1,000.

5 The obligation of national defence was incumbent as of old on all landowners. "Const. Hist.," i, 284, Stubbs. The five hide unit was undoubtedly an old institution. "Feudal England," 92, Round.

• The number of decurions of which a municipal curia consisted was fixed by the constitution of each municipality. It was frequently a hundred: new members could be co-opted