Welle.
("Doomsday Book.")
"
ELLS, a city, having separate jurisdiction, locally in the hundred of Wells-Forum, County of Somerset." Thus runs a description of this place, and is a fair sample of most cities. We think a little explanation anent "the hundred" may possibly make that term more clear of understanding, and may not be amiss. The description, short as it is, has quite a condensed history of its own, but only conveys a hazy idea of the status of the city.
In the days of heathenism, it must be remembered that England was partitioned into several kingdoms, the size of which was regulated by the might of their respective kings. Each tribe, or kingdom, was ruled by a tribal chief, or folk-king. He was chosen by the tribe, and the king-ship became in time practically hereditary. To maintain his power he had to respect and keep the customs of his people. Without their consent he could pass no law; he could touch no freeman's life or heritage without consent of law, which gave the freeman the right of defending his cause before his fellow-freemen; he presided, at regular annual intervals, at the folk-moot, or tribal assembly, and at the great feasts and sacrifices. Counsellors and wise men assisted the king with advice. His marriages were the result of favourable and pacific negotiations with other tribes. He was called upon to travel throughout his kingdom and see that justice was properly administered and evil and oppression suppressed. He was almost regarded as a demi-god, and his crimes were supposed to be punished by the gods, who denied good seasons and brought about other calamities. The king was allowed a little army, or comitatus as it was called, of paid retainers, to maintain adequate discipline, and to form his bodyguard. These kings, chosen by the people at the tribal-moot, in heathen times were throned on the holy stone and carried about on a shield, and in Christian times were consecrated. In accordance with the extension of the West Saxon kingdom, which became the kingdom of the English, the court increased. At the time of the Conquest, a treasurer, a chancellor, and other officials looking after the king's plate, clothes, and horses were added to the royal household. When in addition to these were added the bishops, abbots, and the aldermen, who had succeeded the tribal kings in the several "folks," or "shires," on their absorption into the West Saxon kingdom, the king was recognised as the head of the Witema-gemot, or Concilium Sapientium, as the "meeting of wisemen" was called. In the tenth century the king no longer went about to get the consent of each folk-moot to a certain law, but convened the heads of each shire-moot at some convenient central spot. This convening of moots, or Mycel-gemot, became the Magnum Concilium of the Normans, and in the thirteenth century developed into the High Courts and Parliament. Beneath the shire-moots came the "hundred-moots," and later on the "hall-moots." The origin of the "hundred" appears, by some authorities, to be based on the military organisation. It is supposed, in the first instance, to be a grouping of a sufficient number of free homesteads to furnish at least one hundred and twenty fully-armed freemen for war service, and to supply full-qualified jurors for the cases of the district. This hundred-moot was presided over by a lord or an hundred-elder, and discharged the duties for the district much in the same way as the shire-moot did for the county. It was a criminal and civil court with its grand jury, and enforced the attendance of persons from each manor within the hundred. When the king was absent from the shire-moot, the "ealdorman" (alderman) of the shire presided, and to watch the royal interests was nominated the "shire-reeve," or sheriff (scirgerefa), chosen from the better class of the freeholders. We are told that the laws of England were far in advance of those in France. In fact, the English had written laws at the time of the Conquest, and the Normans had none. It hardly seems credible that the conquered were, in some respects, more civilised than their conquerors.
It was only after the Conquest that the "Doomsday Book" came into existence. After the Conquest the sheriff became simply a royal officer. He was the financial representative of the Crown within his district. Now his financial duties no longer exist, and his judicial are almost nil. Our general knowledge of him is that he is supposed to be in at the death of a murderer, and that he is somehow or other associated with the bailiff—sheriff's officer, as he is styled.