TOWNSHIP (AS. tfinseipe, from tOn, in closure, town + -scipe, Eng. -ship). A minor political or territorial division in England and the United States. In England, in Anglo-Saxon times, as a political unit it was known as the tunscipc; as an area it was the parish. As a political unit it had a popular assembly (tun moot); as an ecclesiastical unit it had a vestry meeting. The chief executive officer was the tun reeve. He with the priest and four other persons represented the township in the popular assembly of the hundred and county. Upon the settlement of the American colonies the township was transplanted to America, and still survives. like many other political institu tions of English origin. Here it is a subdivision of the county, and its political importance varies with the locality of the State. In New Eng land, under the name of the town, it plays a far more important part in the work of the local administration than the county—in fact, it per forms most of the business of local government which in the Southern States is attended to by the county. (See Tower.) In the Middle and Western States the township plays a somewhat less important part in the work of the local government lhan it does in New England, the county there sharing with the township many of the important functions of local government.
In the Southern States the township is not an administrative unit of much importance. On
account of early social and political conditions there, the county has been from the first the chief unit of local government. although there are signs of development in the Southern township which may increase its administrative importance in the future. In some of the Middle and Western States the town meeting exists, having been transplanted from New England. Elsewhere the chief governing authority is a township hoard. The township has a quasi-corporate capacity, being able to own real estate and to sue and be sued, but in performing public governmental du ties it acts for the State and cannot be held liable for the negligence or tortious acts of its agents. The word township is also applied to the units of the Congressional survey in some of the Southern and Western States, these being rectangular areas 6 miles square, each of which is subdivided into 36 sections containing 640 acres. (See diagram under SURVEYING.) This is probably the most simple system of land division yet established. The Congressional township, as it is sometimes called, is not a public corpora tion or juristic personality, but a geographical convenience. Consult : Ashley, "The Anglo-Saxon Township," in Quarterly Journal of Economics; Bryce, American Commonwealth (London and New York, 1900).