Delaware public Archives gives you the name Hundred. <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/index.htm">Home</A> > <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/index.htm">Educational Materials</A> > Glossary <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/admin/hours.htm">Hours</A> (If you have AOL as your carrier use blue letters) http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/glossary.htm#TopOfPage Glossary of Terms <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#a">A</A>, <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#b">B</A>, <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#c">C</A>, <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#d">D</A> <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#e">E</A> <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#f">F</A> <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#g">G</A> <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#h">H</A> <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#i">I</A> <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#j">J</A> <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#k">K</A> <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#l">L</A> <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#m">M</A> <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#n">N</A> <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#o">O</A> <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#p">P</A> <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/ou! treach/#q">Q</A> <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#r">R</A> <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#s">S</A> <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#t">T</A> <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#u">U</A> <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#v">V</A> <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#w">W</A> <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#x">X</A> <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#y">Y</A> <A HREF="http://www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/outreach/#z">Z</A> Hundreds (Hds.) - an old English term for land division utilized by Penn equaling a land area of less than a county or shire but larger than a town or parish. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Hundred Hundredum Subdivision of a county, with its own assembly of notables and village representatives. http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/glossary.html ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ http://www.ancestry.com/library/view/news/articles/5376.asp Lancashire: Hundreds and Other Things – Sherry Irvine, CGRS, FSA (Scot) Of the four Lancashire CDs in the English Parish Records (EPR) series, three contain the term 'hundreds' in the title. Other EPR titles stick to county names, three mention dioceses, and Yorkshire has its 'ridings'—North, East, and West. (Riding is derived from an Old English word meaning third part, which explains why there never has been a 'south' riding.) So what are 'hundreds'? Are there one hundred in a county? Do all counties have them? The best way to begin is with a definition. Hundreds were sub-divisions of shires and counties, each with its own court. They were judicial, military, and taxation units that emerged before William the Conqueror. Domesday Book is arranged by counties and hundreds. Size varied, but the basis for drawing up the hundreds of a county was pretty much the same everywhere. It was an area that comprised one hundred families, or one hundred 'hides.' A hide (also known as a carucate) was a measure of land—the amount required by one free family and its dependents. This amount of land was defined in turn as that which could be tilled by one plough and a team of oxen in one year. The hundred was a practical division of local administration for a very long time. Genealogists encounter hundreds in directories; they are listed in the county sections within Samuel Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of England; they appear on maps. Among the records arranged this way are hearth taxes in the late 1600s and militia records of the 1700s. This ancient division is not found in every county. The four extreme northern counties of Cumberland, Westmorland, Durham, and Northumberland, were broken up into wards. On the eastern side of England, the equivalent of a hundred is the wapentake, a term which the Danes brought with them. Wapentakes are found in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland, and Yorkshire. In several counties the hundred (or the wapentake) is a sub-division of a unit that falls between it and the county. Yorkshire has its ridings, Lincolnshire has three divisions (Lindsey, Kestevan, Holland); in the southeast, Kent has 62 hundreds within 5 'lathes' and Sussex has 66 hundreds within 6 'rapes.' Lancashire had six hundreds. There is something from all six of them among these CDs and the pairings make geographic sense (there are two hundreds on each of three CDs, and the fourth covers general sources and part of Neighboring Westmorland). Salford (contains Manchester) and West Derby (contains Liverpool) are the southern two, Blackburn and Leyland are in the middle, Amounderness and Lonsdale, the northern pair including the part of Lancashire across Morecambe Bay (now part of Cumbria). For comparison, Cornwall had nine hundreds, Essex had twenty, and Norfolk had thirty-three. The smaller divisions reflect the larger number of people per square mile and the greater fertility of the land. You cannot be a genealogist without an interest in and an affection for maps of all sorts. Sooner or later, you will need to know in which hundred a particular parish is located, or which hundreds need to be searched to collect all entries of one surname in one type of record. There are several ways to find information about hundreds. They are listed in the county essays within the Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis (orig. pub. 1831, rep. by GPC in two volumes, 1998). This useful reference work is available on CD- ROM and is also available online to Ancestry.com data and/or UK/Ireland Collection <A HREF="http://www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=831&key=D3098">subscribers.</A> On the Web through GENUKI (<A HREF="http://www.genuki.org.uk/">www.genuki.org.uk</A>) use the search feature, putting 'hundred' into the box. There are a huge number of results, but you may find a few worth exploring. Another route via GENUKI is to go to the county section and select the topic 'maps' (not available for every county). (For Lancashire the specific URL is <A HREF="http://www.genuki.org.uk/indexes/LANcontents.html">www.genuki.org.uk/indexes/LANcontents.html</A>) Within the options is a list of links to maps, and some of these show the hundred boundaries. Sherry Irvine, CGRS, FSA (Scot) has been researching her British ancestry for thirty years. She founded Interlink Bookshop and Genealogical Services (<A HREF="http://www.interlinkbookshop.com/"> www.interlinkbookshop.com</A>) in 1988; she currently lectures in Canada and the United States and is president of the Association of Professional Genealogists. You can e-mail Sherry with suggestions for future British genealogy articles at <A HREF="mailto:sherryirvine55@myfamily.com">sherryirvine55@myfamily.com</A>. She will not be able to send personal replies, but will feature some questions in upcoming issues of the Ancestry Daily News. Sherry also regrets that she is unable to assist with personal research. Sherry is also the author of: Your Scottish Ancestry: A Guide for North Americans <A HREF="http://www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=831&key=P1046">www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=831&key=P1046</A> Your English Ancestry: A Guide for North Americans <A HREF="http://www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=831&key=P1045">www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=831&key=P1045</A> _____________________________________________________________The above information provided as an aid to the following query... Subj: Re: [DELAWARE] HUNDRED Date: 11/16/2002 7:30:02 PM Central Standard Time From: ginia2@san.rr.com (Virginia Beck) Reply-to: <A HREF="mailto:DELAWARE-L@rootsweb.com">DELAWARE-L@rootsweb.com</A> To: DELAWARE-L@rootsweb.com Can someone give me a definition of a "hundred"? I have heard it described as a measure of land, the number of people the promoter had to recruit in order to establish a working community, the number of people it took to establish a defense force of 100 men. I looked it up in Google, but found no satisfactory explanation there. It seems to be used almost in the sense of a county . . . ??? Thanks, Virginia . Note: Murderkill is not a town. It is a "hundred" This is another attempt of mine to help others in their search of genealogical information....My only claim is to possibly enter the Kingdom of God. All have a great life Bluchp56@aol.com