Volume 1
The history and antiquities of the county of Dorset / Compiled from the best and most ancient historians, inquisitions post mortem, and other valuable records and mss. in the public offices, and libraries, and in private hands. With a copy of Domesday book and the Inquisitio Gheldi for the county: interspersed with some remarkable particulars of natural history; and adorned with a correct map of the county, and views of antiquities, seats of the nobility and gentry, &c. By John Hutchins, M.A.
- John Hutchins
- Date:
- 1774
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The history and antiquities of the county of Dorset / Compiled from the best and most ancient historians, inquisitions post mortem, and other valuable records and mss. in the public offices, and libraries, and in private hands. With a copy of Domesday book and the Inquisitio Gheldi for the county: interspersed with some remarkable particulars of natural history; and adorned with a correct map of the county, and views of antiquities, seats of the nobility and gentry, &c. By John Hutchins, M.A. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![at ioo acres, perhaps the common hundred, which was 120 acres s. Mr. Agarde indeed thinks the carucate when mentioned alone was equal to the hide; but when mentioned with the hide, as in this county, it contained only about 60 acres h. The hide was the meafure of land in the Confefior’s reign, the carucate that to which it was reduced by the Conqueror’s new ftandard. Thus every place is faid to have paid geld for fo many hides T. R. E. and then follows its prefent meafure of fo many carucates; eft xi caru- catarum. The abbreviation car. or carl7 means both a carucate, and a plough, caruca. After com¬ paring the antient and modern meafures, and how many carucates were royal demefne, the i-ecord ftates how many carucce were employed on each parcel of land. But we are not always to conclude that there were as many ploughs on it as it was capable of working. In feme in- fiances there were more, and we find it obferved that the land was half a carucate, and vet there was one plough on it; and that though the land was but one carucate and a half, tamen ibi J'unt 11 carucre; and three ploughs to two carucates. In two infiances, for ploughs we have oxen; terra eji 111 bourn Where Exchequer Domefday fays terra cf 1 car. et dimid. Exeter Domefday has potejl arari cum caruca & dimidio. 2. A virgate. Four of thefe made a hide1. The Chronicle of Battle Abbey11 reckons eight to one hide, and four virgates to one wifta. This laft name is derived from the Saxon pipra, and in the Regifirum Honoris de Richmond, App. p 44. is made fynonymous with a virgate. A MS. quoted by Du Cange makes a virgate confifi of 24 acres, and an hide of four virgates. In a regifter book of Ely quoted by Mr. Agarde its contents are from 20 to 60 acres. It differed, as thcyard-land at prefent, in the fame manor. 3. A bovate or oxgang. Eight of thefe commonly went to the hide or carucate ; fome con¬ tained 12, 16, 18, or 20 1 acres, more or lefs, in different counties. 4. The acre was not equal, for the fame reafon that the virgate and bovate were unequah An acre was 40 perches in length, and four in breadth : or if but 20 perches in length, then eight in breadth k; 16, 18, 20 or more feet went to the perch. 5. Arpenna, or arpent, plur. arpenz, an acre, or furlong of ground, is often applied to vineyards. Du Cange quotes a MS. glofiary which fixes it at 120 by 170 feet, and adds, that two arpennes made a jugerum. Spelman obferves that in later ages this name was appropriated to meadows and vineyards. The meafures for woodland, meadow, and pafiure were, 1. Leuca, leuga, or leva. Leuga Anglica conjlat xii Spuaranteinis, fays Battle-Abbey Chronicle k. Some afi'ert it was certainly but one mile, and the quarentein a furlong; for the foot was cuf- tomarily in fome places 12 or 18 inches, more or lefs. But the quantity of both thefe meafures is not to be too peremptorily determined. Sir William Dugdale fays, in Domefday Book this which the French call league [lieue] lignifies a mile, or iooo paces, not a French league, which was twice as much m. Du Cange however fays, the French league was 1500 paces. Ingulphus in¬ forms us that the Englifh under the Normans followed the French cufioms as to the name, but by leuca intended a mile, and in this furvey always exprefs the meafure rather more than lefs than what it really was n. The leuca or leuga is by Mr. Blomfield rendered league, by which he does not mean the common league of three miles, but the diftance of two or thereabouts, which an- fwered in the generality of the places he examined as to their extent, which feems the befi way of judging0. 2. Quarentena (Exeter Domefday Book, quadragenaria), nemoris, pafcuce, a fortylong, or furlong, a meafure of forty perches, the perch being 20 feet p. In Domefday Book it was the ufual meafure of woodland. The charter of Witlaf, king of Mercia, applies it to arable^. Could the quantity of the leuca and quarentena be afeertained, and a method found to reduce them into hides, it would be ufeful to determine the antient extent of parithes. The wood¬ land with which this county in former ages abounded is now converted into tillage and pafiure. 3. Pertica orperticata, a perch, a meafure of 20 feet; the Chronicle of Battle Abbey fays only 16 feet; and 40 fuch perches in length and four in breadth made an acre. The pertica regis in the Clofe Rolls 11 H. III. m. 6. was 24 feet r. The only liquid meafure that we meet with is a Sextarium. This meafure applied to honey, contained 41b.s and anfwered to our quartt. R Carte, v. I. p. 365. h Antiq. Difc. I. p. 46, 47. 1 See Webb’s further account of Domefday Book, at the end of his account of Danegeld, p. 27. In the cuftomary of the manor of Milton abbey, t. E. II. mention is made of virgatarii Scjemivirga- tarii, or tenants of virgates and half virgates. See hereafter v. I. p. 429. Thefe terms have eicaped the Gloliographers. k Mon. Atig. I. p. 313. 1 lb. I. p. 637. n> Dugd. VVarvvickfn. v. I. p. 46. n Fol. 117. 0 Hift. Norfolk, v. I. p. 2, note *. p In the charter of Grofinund abbey, Yorkfhire, it is di¬ mmed that the yuarenteme fhould be meafured by a rod of 20 feet. Mon. Ang. III. p. 16. lb. I. p. 166, 168. See Du Cange, in vote. r Spelm. in voce. 1 Du Cange, in voce. * Spelm. in voce. 2](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30456496_0001_0107.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
