Chapter IX: Tythings and Hundreds--Shires

1. Though the Saxons, as they settled down in England, formed "tuns", which at first had very little to do with one another, that state of things probably did not last a very long time. In fighting the Britons they had had to act together; and, for the sake of protection and help, these separate communities had to combine. Somewhat in this way ten families in a district would form a =tything=; and the heads of the villages would, from time to time, meet together, to consult on various matters in which they were interested.

2. Then larger areas would need to be covered, as the country became more settled. Ten tythings would make a =hundred=; and, from time to time, men from all the places in the hundred would meet together and hold =hundred courts=. Most of the English counties are still divided into hundreds. In those days the hundreds were not all of the same size, because, owing to the nature of the soil, some tuns were far apart from one another, and a tything might cover a wide district, and a hundred a much larger area. If the hundred was small, that would show that the tuns were pretty close together, and that the district was populous. If, on the other hand, the tythings and hundreds were large, that would show that the district was thinly peopled.

3. We have seen that new settlements were formed by portions of the family leaving the old home, and making a new tun in the most suitable place they could find. It would happen, no doubt, in favourable districts, that new tuns would spring up not very far from the mother tun; and, in the course of time, there would be a good many more tuns in the tything than there were originally. The fact seems to be, that when once the boundaries had been roughly agreed upon, they were not often altered. From being a combination of families, or tuns, the tything got to be a =district=; and it kept its name of tything long after the number of tuns in it had increased.

4. It was much the same with the =hundreds=. In time they were represented by certain districts, whose borders were known to the people living in them. The hundreds all over the country have not altered their boundaries to any great extent until quite recently. In Hampshire to-day there are thirty-seven hundreds; in Hertfordshire there are only eight; and Middlesex has now the same six hundreds which it had twelve centuries ago when a good part of the county was forest land.

5. As to the time when the hundreds became grouped into =shires= we cannot say much: the change was brought about gradually, and quite naturally. It is not at all likely that all the various kingdoms in England came together on some particular occasion and said: "Now we'll divide all our kingdoms into shires". But the hundreds did become grouped into =shires=, doubtless because it was necessary that they might act together in matters which concerned all.

6. There is nothing like a threatened danger from without to draw men together. In the tun, no doubt, the villagers fell out with each other; however fairly the strips of land were shared somebody was sure to get what he did not like, and to grumble about it. Some of his fellow-villagers would take his side, and say it was a shame; and others would take the opposite side. But if the cattle belonging to the tun over the hills, or on the other side of the marsh, had been seen on the wrong side of the =mark=, or boundary which separated the lands of the two tuns, the dispute about the strips in the field would be forgotten, and away the people would go in a body towards the offending tun "to see about it".

7. In much the same way, when the boundaries of a tything or hundred were invaded by another tything or hundred, the differences between the tuns would be dropped, in order to preserve the rights which they had in common.

8. There was strife among the Saxon kingdoms which lasted for many years, especially between the three great rivals, Wessex, Mercia, and Northumbria. The lesser kingdoms were under the dominion, sometimes of one, sometimes of another of these rivals. All this fighting and settling down put more and more power into the hands of the kings. Instead of each village fighting for itself, and leaving all the others to fight for themselves, it was found to be a much safer and wiser policy to join together for common protection. Now if people join together, whether in peace or war, to win a football match, or to take a city, somebody must be in authority to give the necessary orders. Hence the power of the king, and the officers acting under him, grew up by custom, until the overlordship of the king was so firmly established that no one dared call it in question.

9. Apparently from the smaller Saxon kingdoms we get our older =shires=. Whether the overlord happened to be the King of Mercia, or the King of Wessex, the under-king continued to rule over his old kingdom, or share. When, at length, in the ninth century, the King of Wessex was acknowledged as the overlord or King of England, Wessex and Mercia, and a part of Northumbria, were gradually divided into _shares_, or shires, over each of which the King of England appointed a =reeve= to look after his interests--the shire-reeve or =sheriff=. The King of England still appoints the high sheriff of each county. An =eorlderman=, who, in the case of the older shires, was at first no doubt a descendant of the old under-king, looked after the business of the shire itself.

10. Amongst the older shires we have Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Essex, Middlesex; while the newer ones were all named after some important central town, which in each case gave its name to the shire; such are Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire.

=Summary.=--In time ten free families or tuns joined together
for protection, formed a _tything_. Gradually the name _tything_
was given to the _district_, though many more tuns had grown
up upon it. Then the tythings had to join together, and ten of
these formed the _hundred_. These, too, got to be the names of
districts, and these are still in use in most counties. The
divisions known as _shires_, or shares, came later. The earliest
formed were those which had been little kingdoms, like Kent,
Sussex, Essex, Middlesex, and Surrey. When the bigger kingdoms
were broken up, they were named after important towns in the
district, like Hertfordshire, Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire,
&c. The king's officer, or reeve, in each county in time was
called the shire-reeve, or _sheriff_.