Hundreds of Cheshire

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The Hundreds of Cheshire, as with other Hundreds in England were the geographic divisions of Cheshire for administrative, military and judicial purposes. They were introduced in Cheshire some time before the Norman Conquest. Later on, both the number and names of the hundreds changed by processes of land being lost from Cheshire, and merging or amalgamation of remaining hundreds.

Contents

[edit] Domesday Hundreds

The Domesday Hundreds of Cheshire, in 1086. Two hundreds later forming part of Wales are shown in pink.
The Domesday Hundreds of Cheshire, in 1086. Two hundreds later forming part of Wales are shown in pink.

Cheshire, in the Domesday Book was recorded as a larger county than it is today. There is a small disagreement in published sources about where the northern boundary of Cheshire lay, and some parts of the border areas with Wales were disputed with the predecessors of Wales. One source[1] states that the northern border was the River Ribble, resulting in large parts of what was to become Lancashire being at that time part of Cheshire. This area is included as "Inter Ripam et Mersham" in the Domesday Book.[2][1] However, more recent sources confirm that the actual boundary at that time was the River Mersey.[3][4][5]

The land south of the River Mersey was made up of twelve hundreds: Atiscross, Bochelau, Chester, Dudestan, Exestan, Hamestan, Middlewich, Riseton, Roelau, Tunendune, Warmundestrou, and Wilaveston, with the hundreds of Atiscross and Exestan being disputed with the Kingdom of Gwynedd.[6] (There are slight variations between various sources in the spellings of these names.) The hundreds in between the Mersey and the Ribble (Inter Ripam et Mersham) were: West Derby ("Derbei"), Newton ("Neweton"), Warrington ("Walingtune"), Blackburn ("Blacheburn"), Salford ("Salford"), and Leyland ("Lailand").[7]

This uncertain nature of the northern border lasted until 1182, when the land north of the Mersey became administered as part of the new county of Lancashire.[8] Later, the hundreds of Atiscross and Exestan became firmly part of Wales, as did part of the Dudestan hundred, where it was known as Maelor Saesneg, and (later still) "Flintshire Detached" (see Flintshire (historic).)[6]

[edit] Later Hundreds

The Later Hundreds of Cheshire, around 1850.
The Later Hundreds of Cheshire, around 1850.

Over the years the remaining ten hundreds consolidated to just seven with changed names: Broxton, Bucklow, Eddisbury, Macclesfield, Nantwich, Northwich, and Wirral. The date at which this process happened is not clear: These newer names are reported to be all in use by 1259 to 1260.[9] The same source reports research that has found Macclesfield Hundred to be named in 1242 and Eddisbury Hundred by the late Twelfth Century.[9]

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Sylvester (1980). page 14.
  2. ^ Morgan (1978). pages 269c–301c,d.
  3. ^ Harris and Thacker (1987). write on page 252:

    Certainly there were links between Cheshire and south Lancashire before 1000, when Wulfric Spot held lands in both territories. Wulfric's estates remained grouped together after his death, when they were left to his brother Aelfhelm, and indeed there still seems to have been some kind of connexion in 1086, when south Lancashire was surveyed together with Cheshire by the Domesday commissioners. Nevertheless, the two territories do seem to have been distinguished from one another in some way and it is not certain that the shire-moot and the reeves referred to in the south Lancashire section of Domesday were the Cheshire ones.

  4. ^ Phillips and Phillips (2002). pages 26–31.
  5. ^ Crosby, A. (1996). writes on page 31:

    The Domesday Survey (1086) included south Lancashire with Cheshire for convenience, but the Mersey, the name of which means 'boundary river' is known to have divided the kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia and there is no doubt that this was the real boundary.

  6. ^ a b Harris and Thacker (1987). pages 340–341.
  7. ^ Morgan (1978). pages 269c–301c,d. Names as given in Domesday are in parentheses after the previous individual names.
  8. ^ History of Lancashire. Aboutlancs website. Retrieval Date: March 31, 2008.
  9. ^ a b Dunn (1987). p. 7.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Crosby, A. (1996). A History of Cheshire. (The Darwen County History Series.) Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Phillimore & Co. Ltd. ISBN 0850339324.
  • Dunn, F. I. (1987). The Ancient Parishes, Townships, and Chapelries of Cheshire. Chester: Cheshire Record Office and Chester Diocesan Record Office. ISBN 0906758149.
  • Harris, B. E., and Thacker, A. T. (1987). The Victoria History of the County of Chester. (Volume 1: Physique, Prehistory, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and Domesday). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0197227619.
  • Morgan, P. (1978). Domesday Book Cheshire: Including Lancashire, Cumbria, and North Wales. Chichester, Sussex: Phillimore & Co. Ltd. ISBN 0850331404.
  • Phillips A. D. M., and Phillips, C. B. (2002), A New Historical Atlas of Cheshire. Chester, UK: Cheshire County Council and Cheshire Community Council Publications Trust. ISBN 0904532461.
  • Sylvester, D. (1980). A History of Cheshire. (The Darwen County History Series). (2nd Edition.) London and Chichester, Sussex: Phillimore & Co. Ltd. ISBN 0850333849.