Atithing ortything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally tenhides (and hence, one tenth of ahundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of amanor orcivil parish. The tithing's leader or spokesman was known as atithingman.[1][2][3]
The nountithing breaks down asten +thing, which is to say, athing (an assembly) of the households who live in an area that comprises tenhides. Comparable words areDanishherredthing for ahundred, andEnglishhusting for a single household.
Sound changes in the prehistory of English are responsible for the first part of the word looking so different from the wordten. In the West Germanic dialects which becameOld English,n had a tendency toelide when positioned immediately before ath.
The noun is not to be confused with the verbtotithe, itspresent participletithing, nor the act oftithing, though they partly share the same origin.
The term originated in the 10th century, when a tithing meant the households in an area comprising ten hides. The heads of each of those households were referred to astithingmen; historically they were assumed to all be males, and older than 12 (an adult, in the context of the time). Eachtithingman was individually responsible for the actions and behaviour of all the members of the tithing, by a system known asfrankpledge. If a person accused of a crime was not forthcoming, his tithing was fined; if he was not part of the frankpledge, the whole town was subject to the fine.[4]
Unlike areas dominated byWessex,Kent had been settled byJutes rather thanSaxons, and retained elements of its historical identityas a separate and wealthy kingdom into the Middle Ages. While Wessex and Mercia eventually grouped their hundreds intoShires, Kent grouped hundreds intolathes.Sussex, which had also beena separate kingdom, similarly grouped its hundreds intorapes. The different choice of terminology continued to the level of the tithing; in Kent, parts ofSurrey, and Sussex, the equivalent term was aborgh,borow, orborough (not to be confused withborough in its more usual sense of a chartered or privileged town);[5][6][7] their equivalent to the tithingman was therefore aborsholder,borough-holder orheadborough.[8][9]
TheNorman Conquest introduced the feudal system, which quickly displaced the importance of the hundred as an administrative unit. With the focus onmanorial courts for administration and minor justice, tithings came to be seen as subdivisions of amanor. The later break-down of the feudal system did not detract from this, as the introduction ofJustices of the Peace lead topetty sessions displacing many of the administrative and judicial functions of the manorial courts. Bythe Reformation,civil parishes had replaced the manor as the most important local administrative concept, and tithings came to be seen as a parish subdivision.
Frankpledge eventually evolved into both theJury system and thepetty constabulary, but tithings themselves had lost their practical significance, and fell into disuse. Despite this, active tithings continued to be found in some parts of rural England well into the 19th century, and tithings and hundreds have never been formally abolished.