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WAPENTAKE

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 304 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WAPENTAKE , anciently the See also:

principal administrative See also:division of the counties of See also:York, See also:Lincoln, See also:Leicester, See also:Nottingham, See also:Derby and See also:Rutland, corresponding to the See also:hundred in the See also:southern counties of See also:England. In many cases, however, See also:ancient wapentakes are now called hundreds. See also:North of the See also:Tees, Sadberg in See also:Durham is the only See also:district which was caller: a wapentake, and the See also:rest of the ancient administrative divisions of the three See also:northern counties were called wards. The word wapentake seems to have been first applied to the periodical meetings of the magnates of a district; and, if we may believe the 12th See also:century compilation known as the Leges Edwardi, it took its name from the See also:custom in accordance with which they touched the See also:spear of their newly-appointed See also:magistrate with their own spears and so confirmed his See also:appointment. Probably it was also usual for them to signify their approval of a proposal by the clash of their arms, as was the practice among the Scandinavian peoples. Wapentakes are not found outside the parts of England which were settled by the Danes. They varied in See also:size in different counties ; those of See also:Yorkshire, for instance, being very much larger than those of See also:Lincolnshire. As a See also:general See also:rule each wapentake had its own See also:court, which had the same See also:jurisdiction as the hundred courts of the southern counties. In some cases, however, a See also:group of wapentakes had a single court. It should be noticed that the court was styled wapentagium simply, and not See also:curia wa pentagii. See See also:Sir See also:Henry See also:Ellis, General Introduction to Domesday See also:Book; W. W.

See also:

Skeat, Etymological See also:English See also:Dictionary; W. See also:Stubbs, Constitutional See also:History; and H. M. See also:Chadwick, Studies on Anglo-Saxon Institutions (1905). (G. J.

End of Article: WAPENTAKE

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