Re: OT: baloney and cheese

Peter Bleackley scripsit:

> Rape            used in Sussex
Sussex has six rapes, IIRC, each divided into hundreds.

> Wapentake       not sure, probably somewhere in East Anglia.
The Danelaw, specifically Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire,
Rutland, and Leicestershire.  In Cumberland, Westmorland, and Co. Durham,
the corresponding unit was the ward; elsewhere, the hundred.  A group of
villages.

The hundred was the operative unit for the "presentment of Englishry".
If an unknown person was found dead by foul play, he was presumed to be a
Norman, and the hundred (or equivalent) was fined, unless they could prove
in the coroner's court by local testimony (usually that of relatives)
that the deceased was English.  This was a major mechanism of the Normans'
control of the countryside in the early days, but later became a sort of
tax on death of any kind, and as such was widely resented, especially
in the great winter famine of 1257-58, when so many were dying that
inquests became impossible but the fine (called the "murdrum fine") was
still exacted.  It was restricted once more to felonious deaths ten years
later, and was ultimately abolished in 1340, by which time of course the
distinction between Norman and English had become impossible to maintain.

> Soke            The area around Peterborough.
The same as "liberties" further south -- a district where the common
law did not apply for one reason or another, typically ecclesiastical.

--
Deshil Holles eamus.  Deshil Holles eamus.  Deshil Holles eamus.
Send us, bright one, light one, Horhorn, quickening, and wombfruit. (3x)
Hoopsa, boyaboy, hoopsa!  Hoopsa, boyaboy, hoopsa!  Hoopsa, boyaboy, hoopsa!
  -- Joyce, _Ulysses_, "Oxen of the Sun"       jcowan@reutershealth.com

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