Wapentake

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Wapentake

A local division of a shire or county in old English Law; the term used north of the Trent River for the territory called a hundred in other parts of England.

The name wapentake is said to come from weapon and take, an indication that it referred to an area organized for military purposes.

WAPENTAKE. An ancient word used in England as synonymous with hundred. (q.v.) Fortesc. De Laud. ch. 24.

A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States. By John Bouvier. Published 1856.

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References in periodicals archive ?

Dudding, "Addlethorpe and Ingoldmells Churchwardens' Accounts," Lincolnshire Notes and Queries 17 (1922-1923): 151-80; Edmund Oldfield, A Topographical and Historical Account of Wainfleet and the Wapentake of Candleshoe, in the County of Lincoln (London: Lungman, 1829), 110-12.

The lost playing places of Lincolnshire

Historically, it was one of the administrative sub-divisions, known as wapentakes, of the West Riding.

Upper Agbrigg history

Spenser similarly recommends that Ireland should import the system of shires, hundreds, wapentakes, and tithes that King Alfred had imposed to maintain peace and justice in Saxon England (185-86).