Chronicles (1 of 6): The Description of Britaine

by Raphael Holinshed; William Harrison; John Hooker

What a lath is. Some as it were roming or rouing at the name Lath, doo saie that it is deriued of a barne, which is called in old English a lath, as they coniecture. From which spéech in like sort some deriue the word Laistow, as if it should be trulie written Lath stow, a place wherein to laie vp or laie on things, of whatsoeuer condition. But hereof as yet I cannot absolutelie be satisfied, although peraduenture some likelihood in their iudgements may séeme to be therein. Other vpon some further consideration affirme that they were certeine circuits in euerie countie or shire conteining an appointed number of townes, whose inhabitants alwaies assembled to know and vnderstand of matters touching their portions, in to some one appointed place or other within their limits, especiallie whilest the causes were such as required not the aid or Léetes. assistance of the whole countie. Of these lathes also (as they saie) some shires had more, some lesse, as they were of greatnesse. (And M. Lambert séemeth to be of the opinion, that the leets of our time wherein these pledges be yet called Franci plegij of the word Free burgh) doo yeeld some shadow of that politike institution of Alfred. But sith my skill is so small in these cases that I dare not iudge anie thing at all as of mine owne knowledge, I will not set downe anie thing more than I read, least I should roue at randon in our obscure antiquities, and reading no more of lathes my next talke shall be of hundreds.

Hundred or wapentake. The hundred and the wapentake is all one, as I read in some, and by this diuision not a name appertinent to a set number of townes (for then all hundreds should be of equall quantitie) but a limited iurisdiction, within the compasse whereof were an hundred persons called Denarie or tithing. pledges (as I said) or ten denaries, or tithings of men, of which ech one was bound for others good abering, and laudable behauiour in the common-wealth of the realme. The chiefe man likewise of euerie denarie or tithing was in those daies called a tithing man, in Tithing man in Latine Decurio Borsholder. Latine Decurio, but now in most places a borsholder or burgholder, as in Burrow. Kent; where euerie tithing is moreouer named a burgh or burrow, although that in the West countrie he be still called a tithing man, and his circuit a tithing, as I haue heard at large. I read furthermore (and it is partlie afore noted) that the said Alfred caused ech man of frée condition (for the better maintenance of his peace) to be ascribed into some hundred by placing himselfe in one denarie or other, where he might alwais haue such as should sweare or saie vpon their certeine knowledge for his honest behauiour and ciuill conuersation if it should happen at anie time, that his credit should come in question. In like sort I gather out of Leland and other, that if anie small matter did fall out worthie to be discussed, the tithing man or borsholder (now officers, at the commandement of the high constable of which euerie hundred hath one at the least) should decide the same in their léetes, whereas the great causes were referred to the hundreds, the greater to the lathes, and the greatest of all to the shire daies, where the earles or aldermen did set themselues, & make finall ends of the same, according vnto iustice. For Twelue men. this purpose likewise in euerie hundred were twelue men chosen of good age and wisedome, and those sworne to giue their sentences without respect of person, and in this maner (as they gather) were things handeled in those daies. Which waie the word wapentake came in vse, as yet I cannot tell; howbeit the signification of the same declareth (as I conceiue) that at the chiefe towne the soldiers which were to serue in that hundred did méet, fetch their weapons, & go togither from thence to the field, or place of seruice by an ordinarie custome, then generallie knowen amongst them. It is supposed also that the word Rape commeth a Rapiendo, as it were of catching and snatching, bicause the tenants of the hundred or wapentakes met vpon one or sundrie daies & made quicke dispatch of their lords haruest at once and in great hast. But whether it be a true imagination or not as yet I am vncerteine, and therefore it lieth not in me to determine anie thing thereof: wherefore it shall suffice to haue touched them in this maner.

Fortie shires in England, thirtéene in Wales. In my time there are found to be in England fourtie shires, and likewise thirtéene in Wales, and these latter erected of late yeares by king Henrie the eight, who made the Britons or Welshmen equall in all respects vnto the English, and brought to passe that both nations should indifferentlie be gouerned by one law, which in times past were ordred by diuerse, and those far discrepant and disagreing one from another: as by the seuerall view of the same is yet easie to be discerned. The names of the shires in England are these, whereof the first ten lie betwéene the British sea and the Thames, as Polydor also dooth set them downe.

Kent.
Sussex.
Surreie.
Hampshire.
Barkeshire.
Wilshire.
Dorsetshire.
Summerset.
Deuon.
Cornewall.

There are moreouer on the northside of the Thames, and betwéene the same and the riuer Trent, which passeth through the middest of England (as Polydor saith) sixtéene other shires, whereof six lie toward the east, the rest toward the west, more into the middest of the countrie.

Essex, somtime all forrest saue one hundred.
Middlesex.
Hartfordshire.
Suffolke.
Norffolke.
Cambrigeshire in which are 12 hundreds.
Bedford.
Huntingdon wherin are foure hundreds.
Buckingham.
Oxford.
Northampton.
Rutland.
Leircestershire.
Notinghamshire.
Warwike.
Lincolne.

We haue six also that haue their place westward towards Wales, whose names insue.

Glocester.
Hereford.
Worcester.
Shropshire.
Stafford.
Chestershire.

And these are the thirtie two shires which lie by south of the Trent. Beyond the same riuer we haue in like sort other eight, as

Darbie.
Yorke.
Lancaster.
Cumberland.
Westmerland.
Richemond, wherein are fiue wapentaxes, & when it is accompted as parcell of Yorkeshire (out of which it is taken) then is it reputed for the whole Riding.
Durham.
Northumberland.