HUNDRED

Under the Saxon organization of England, each county or shire comprised an indefinite number or hundreds, each hundred containing ten tithing.a, or groups of ten families' of freeholders or frankpledges. The hundred was governed by a high constable, and had its own court; but its most remarkable feature was the corporate responsibility of the whole for the crimes or defaults of the individual members. The introduction of this plan of organization Into England is commonly ascribed to Alfred, but the idea, as well of the collective liab111ty as of the division, was probably known to the ancient German peoples, as we find the same thing established in the Frankish kingdom under Clothaire, and in Denmark. See 1 BI. Comm. 115; 4 BL Comm. 411. ' -Hundred court. In English law. A larger court-baron, being held for all the inhabitants of a particular hundred, instead of a manor. The free suitors are the judges, and the steward the registrar, as in the case of a court-baron. It is not a court of record, and_ rese!llbles a court-baron in all respects except that in point · of territory it is of greater jurisdiction. These courts have long since fallen into desuetude. S BI. Co=. 34, 35; 3 Steph. Comm. 394, 395. -Hundred gemote. Among the Saxons, a meeting or court of the freeholders of a hun• dred, which a embled, originally, twelve times a year, and po e ed civil and criminal juris• diction and ecclesiastical powers. 1 Reeve, Eng. Law, 7.-Hundred lagh. The law of the hundred, or hundred co1,1rt; liability to attend the hundred court. Spelman.-Hundred penny, In old English law. A tax collected from the hundred, by the sheriff or lord of the hundred. -Hundred sect a, The performance of suit and service at the hundred court.-Hundred ■eten a. In Saxon law. The dwellers or inhabitants of a hundred. Cowell; Blount. Spelman suggests the reading of •~atena from Sax. "ace at,n a tax. HUNDRED-WEIGHT, A denomination of weight containing, according to the English system, 112 pounds; but in this country, generally, it consists of 100 pounds avoirdu· pois. HUNDREDARIUS, In old English law. A hundred ary or' hundredor. A name given to the chief officer of a hundred, as well as to the freeholders who composed it. SpeL voc. "Hundred us." HUNDRED ARY, The chief or presiding officer of a hundred. HUNDREDES EARLDOR, o:r HUN• DREDES MAN, The presiding officer iD the hundred court..Anc. Inst. Eng. [s. 589]