Definition
Hundredus is the Latin and Law Latin form of "hundred," denoting a territorial subdivision of an English county used in medieval and early modern administration. The hundred was an intermediate unit of local government situated between the county (shire) and the individual township or vill. It served as the basis for judicial, military, fiscal, and administrative functions, including the holding of local courts (the hundred court), the collection of certain taxes, and the organization of the frankpledge system. The term appears throughout English legal records, pleadings, and land descriptions from the Anglo-Saxon period through the post-medieval era.
As a secondary usage, Burrill notes that "Hunt." in old English pleadings and records functions as an abbreviation for Huntingdonshire, a county in England. This is a scribal and pleading convention, not a substantive legal term, but researchers working with early English records must recognize it to avoid misreading abbreviated jurisdictional references.
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Common Confusion
The hundred as a geographic and administrative unit should not be confused with the number one hundred in any numerical or quantitative sense when encountered in legal records. The Latin hundredus in pleadings and instruments almost invariably refers to the territorial division, not a quantity. Similarly, the abbreviation "Hunt." in old English documents does not refer to the concept of hunting or any related legal right — it is a county abbreviation. Conflating these forms produces misreadings of record provenance and jurisdictional context.
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Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working with English legal records from the medieval period through the eighteenth century will encounter hundredus or its vernacular equivalents constantly in pleadings, rolls, surveys, and land descriptions. Several navigational points apply:
First, the hundred was a live jurisdictional unit with its own court. Records of hundred courts — pleas, presentments, frankpledge proceedings — are distinct from county court or royal court records and may be held separately in county archives or the Public Record Office (now The National Archives, UK). Knowing that hundredus denotes this specific administrative layer helps researchers locate the correct record series.
Second, the hundred's importance declined significantly after the sixteenth century, though it persisted formally much longer. By the time of Burrill's compilation, it was largely a historical and geographical reference in American and English legal writing. In American colonial law, some jurisdictions borrowed the hundred as an administrative unit (notably Delaware, which retained hundreds as subdivisions into the modern era). Researchers in early American records should be aware of this inheritance.
Third, the abbreviation "Hunt." for Huntingdonshire is a trap in old pleading records. Burrill's citation to Townshend's Pleadings and the Instructor Clericalis flags that this was a recognized scribal convention in English practice. A researcher unfamiliar with the convention may misparse a jurisdictional designation, affecting their understanding of which court had cognizance of the matter or where a disputed property was located.
Fourth, because hundredus appears in Law Latin records, researchers relying on translated or calendared versions of documents may find the term rendered variously as "hundred," "wapentake" (in northern England), "rape" (in Sussex), or "lathe" (in Kent) — regional equivalents to the hundred that carried the same functional meaning. These variants will not appear under hundredus in a Latin index but serve the same administrative role.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's entry is minimal, providing little more than the translation and Spelman's authority, plus the note on the Huntingdonshire abbreviation. Spelman's Glossarium Archaeologicum is the natural primary source for the deeper etymology and historical development of the hundred as an institution; Burrill simply points researchers there rather than synthesizing the substance.
What Burrill omits is substantial. The hundred's history as an institution — its origins debated between Anglo-Saxon administrative organization and Frankish analogues, its role in the frankpledge and view of frankpledge, its gradual displacement by the justices of the peace — is not addressed. For a dictionary of Burrill's scope, the entry is a placeholder rather than a treatment. Researchers should not rely on it for substantive content about how hundred courts functioned or what records they generated; it serves only to confirm the translation and flag the abbreviation.
The citation to Townshend's Pleadings (Towns. Pl. 147) and the Instructor Clericalis (1 Inst. Cler. 28) for the Huntingdonshire abbreviation is a useful specific pointer for anyone working in English common law pleading forms.
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Jurisdictional Note
The hundred as an operative administrative unit was an English institution transplanted unevenly into the American colonies. Delaware is the most prominent American survivor, retaining hundreds as official subdivisions of its counties. Maryland used hundreds historically. Most American jurisdictions abandoned the unit entirely. Researchers in early American colonial records should determine whether the relevant colony used hundreds before assuming the term is purely English in context.
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