[1301] In the Exeter Domesday virga not virgata is the common word. In the Exchequer book an abbreviated form is used; but virga appears in i. 216 b.
[1302] So again, if a iugum is quartered, its quarter can be called a virgate. See Denman Ross, Hist. of Landholding, 140; Round, Feudal England, 108.
[1304] K. 205 (i. 259): ‘circiter 30 iugera.’—K. 217 (i. 274): ‘30 iugera.’—K. 225 (i. 290): ‘hoc est 30 iugerum’ ... ‘hoc est 85 segetum.’—K. 234 (i. 308): ‘150 iugera.’—K. 241 (ii. 1): ‘24 iugeras.’—K. 259 (ii. 26): ‘19 iugera.’—K 264 (ii. 36): ‘unum dimidium agrum ... healve aker.’—K. 276 (ii. 57): ‘10 iugera.’—K. 285 (ii. 70): ‘80 æcra.’—K. 339 (ii. 150): ‘sextig æcera earðlondes ... oðer sextig.’—K. 586 (iii. 118): ‘30 æcra on ðæm twæm feldan.’—K. 612 (iii. 159): ‘2 hida buton 60 æcran.’—K. 633 (iii. 188): ‘3 mansas ac 30 iugerum dimensionem.’—K. 695 (iii. 295): ‘40 agros.’—K. 759 (iv. 59): ‘30 akera.’—K. 782 (iv. 106): ‘fiftig æcera.’—K. 1154 (v. 303): ‘36 ækera yrðlandes.’—K. 1161 (v. 315): ‘ter duodenas segetes’ = ‘36 æcera yrðlandes.’—K. 1211 (v. 393): ‘25 segetes.’—K. 1218 (vi. 1): ‘14 hida and ... 40 æcera.’
[1305] Probably it occurs in Ine 67; certainly in Rectitudines 4, § 3, and in the late document about Tidenham (above, p. 330).—K. 369 (ii. 205): Boundary of a gyrd at Ashurst which belongs to a hide at Topsham (A.D. 937).—K. 521 (ii. 418): Edgar grants ‘tres virgas.’—K. 658 (iii. 229): Æthelred grants ‘3 mansas et 3 perticas.’—K. 1306 (vi. 163): Æthelred grants land ‘trium sub aestimatione perticarum.’—K. 772 (iv. 84): Edward Conf. grants ‘5 perticas.’—K. 787 (iv. 115): He grants ‘unam perticam et dimidiam.’—K. 814 (iv. 160): He grants ‘dimidiam virgam et dimidiam quatrentem.’—Crawford Charters, 5, 9, mortgage in 1018 of a yard of land.—K. 949 (iv. 284); 979 (iv. 307): two other examples from the eve of the Conquest.—It is more likely that these ‘yards’ and ‘perches’ of land are quarter-hides than that they are quarter-acres; ‘square’ perches seem to be out of the question. There are of course many instances in the charters of a pertica, virga, gyrd used as a measure of mere length. See above, [p. 375, note 1266], where a few are cited.
[1306] Meitzen, op. cit. 74. In Germany the Hufe, hoba, huoba, huba, etc. is the unit. This word is said to be connected with the modern German Behuf, our behoof; it is the sors, the portion that behoves a man. In Sweden, the unit is the Mantal, a man’s share. The last word about the tenmannetale of Yorkshire has not been said.
[1307] K. 633 (iii. 188).
[1308] K. 612 (iii. 159): ‘landes sumne dæl, ðæt synd 2 hida, buton 60 æcran ðæt hæft se arcebisceop genumen into Cymesige to his hame him to hwætelande.’
[1309] Rot. Hund. ii. 575. After going through the whole calculation, I have satisfied myself that the sum is worked in this way.
[1310] Hence in our law Latin the word terra means arable land. To claim unam acram terrae when you meant an acre of meadow (prati) would have been a fatal error.