II. 130: Dominus Ricardus Comes Gloverniae subtraxit 4 thethingas videlicet Stockgiffard, Estharpete Stuctone et Westone de hundredo de Wintestoke et ipsas sibi appropriavit. Item dicunt quod Thomas de Ban ... et ceteri libere tenentes predictarum 4 thethingarum solebant sequi dictum hundredum et se subtraxerunt a termino predicto.
II. 131: Dicunt quod una decena de Borewyk et alia decena Chyletone cum liberis hominibus subtrahuntur de hundredo domini Regis de la Hane.
I. 17: Manerium de Collecote et 8 liberi Sokemanni tenentes in dicto manerio solebant facere sectam ad hundredum de Kenoteburie et subtracti sunt a tempore Alani de Fornham quondam vicecomitis usque nunc.
The last instances quoted do not speak directly of the four men and the reeve, but their meaning is quite clear and very significant. The suit of the tithing and of the manor is contrasted with the personal suit of the free tenants. We find often entries as to the attendance of the manor, the township, or the tithing.
I. 181: Dicunt quod abbas de Theokesberie pro terra sua in Codrinton ... Episcopus Wygorniensis pro manerio suo de Clyve per quatuor homines et prepositum solebant facere sectam ad istum hundredum ad turnum vicecomitis bis in anno usque ad provisiones Oxonienses.
I. 105: Villata de Monston per 2 annos et villata de Stratton per 10 annos subtraxerunt sectam hundredi.
I. 78: Dicunt quod idem Walterus (de Bathonia) removit villanos de Sepwasse in forinsecum et feofavit liberos de eadem terra in quo terra quidam tuthinmannus (corr. quedam tethinga?) jungi solebat et sequi ad hundredum forinsecum predictum et est secta ejusdem tethinge subtracta de tempore Regis Henrici patris Regis Edwardi anno ejus quarto.
It appears that the feoffment of free tenants was no equivalent for the destruction of the tithing. The entry is remarkable but not very clear. (Cf. I. 87, II. 133, and Maitland, Introduction to the Selden Soc. vol. II, pp. xxxi, xxxiii.) In any case the main facts are not doubtful. The population of the kingdom was bound to attend the assemblies of the hundred and of the county by representatives from the villages or tithings, which sometimes, though not always, coincided with the manors.
There were many exceptions of different kinds, but the Crown was striving to restrict their number and to enforce general attendance at least for the tourn and the eyre. The representation in these last cases, though much wider and more regular than at the ordinary meetings of the hundred and of the shire, was constructed on the same principles, and the difference lay only in the measure in which the royal right was put into practice against the disruptive tendencies of feudalism.