In the northern parts of England, the counties were not divided into hundreds, but into wards and wapen takes : the former still being the divisions of Cumber land, Westmoreland, Northumberland, and Durham; and the latter of Yorkshire. Wards were so called, from the inhabitants of each division being, in ancient times, obliged to keep watch or ward, against the irrup tions of the Scots or Picts. The term wapentakc is evi dently synonymous with weapon-take, and was given to the divisions of Yorkshire from the same circumstance.
The subdivision of hundreds into tithings is undoubt edly owing to Alfred. "In ancient times, it was ordain ed, for the more sure keeping of the peace, that all free born men should cast themselves into several companies, by ten in each company; and that every one of these ten men should be surety and pledge for the forth-coming of his fellows; for which cause, these companies in some places were called tithings; and as ten times ten make a hundred, so, because it was also appointed that ten of these tithings should, at certain times, meet together for matters of greater weight ; therefore that general assem bly was called a hundred." One of the principal inhabitants of the tithing, who was called the tithing-man, or head-borough, and in some counties the borsholder, or boroughs-ealder, was annually appointed to preside over the rest, and to take care of their interests. Tithings are seldom mentioned now, except in legal proceedings, or in topographical descriptions.
In Lincolnshire another species of division exists, call ed Sokes. Soke, Sok, soc, or soka, according to Brackon, signifies " the power of administering justice, and the territory or precinct in which the chief lord did exercise his soke, his liberty of keeping court, or holding trials within his own soke or jurisdiction." Although parishes were originally ecclesiastical divi sions, yet now they may be properly considered as coming under the class of civil divisions; and, consequently, claim our attention under that head. It is not easy to determine how ancient the division of England into pa rishes is : they are mentioned so early as in the laws of King Edgar, about the year 970 ; but from what occurs relating to them in these laws, it is plain that they were gradually formed. They were originally of the same extent as manors, since it very seldom happens that a manor extends itself over more parishes than one, though there are often many parishes in one manor. The parochial division of England was nearly the same in Edward First's time, 1288-1292, as it is at present.
Parishes are frequently intermixed with one another. This seems to have arisen from the lord of the manor having had a paled of land detached from the main part of his estate, but not sufficient to form a parish of itself. It was natural for him to endow the church which he had erected on his principal estate with the tithes of these disjointed lands; especially if it happened, that no church was then built in any lordship adjoining to these lands.
The settling of the bounds of parishes depends on immemorial custom ; though it is probable, that they were not settled with very exact and minute precision, till the passing of the poor laws, when, in consequence of the claims of relief from their particular parishes which these laws gave to the poor, it became a matter of serious consequence to define exactly the limits of each parish. They cannot now be altered but by legis lative enactment.
As it was found, that in the northern counties, where the parishes extended thirty or forty square miles, the poor laws could not be duly administered, a law was pas sed in the 13th of Charles II. permitting townships and villages, though not entire parishes, to maintain their own poor. Hence townships, in the north of England, may be regarded as divisions subordinate to parishes, and are as distinctly limited as if they were separate pa risr.es.
Towns originally contained but one parish ; but many of them now, from the increase of inhabitants, are divi ded into several parishes.
Besides parishes, or townships, there are places which are deemed extra parochial, or not within the limits of any parish. They were formerly the site of religious houses, or of castles, the owners of which would not permit any interference with their rights or privileges. At present, they enjoy a virtual elmuption from main taining the poor, because there is no overseer on whom the order of a magistrate may be served—from the mili tia laws, because there is no constable to make the re turn—and from repairing the highways, because there is no surveyor. Their tithes are, by immemorial custom, payable to the king instead of the bishop. Extra-paro chial wastes and marsh lands, when improved and drain ed, are to be assessed to all parochial rates in the parish next adjoining. In some counties, liberties interrupt the general course of law, as affecting hundreds, in the same manner as extra-parochial places do with regard to parishes. The number of parishes and parochial chapelries in England and Wales is 10,674, of which about 550 extend into two counties, or into more than one hundred.