of the country of which they apparently formed a part.
All the German nations anciently acted upon the principle of judging every man by the laws of his native country, for which reason the Franks allowed the different tribes subdued by them to retain their own laws.[1] This general custom of the German tribes helps us to understand several matters concerning the Anglo-Saxons which would otherwise be very obscure. The existence of so many small hundreds in the South-Eastern and Eastern counties—and each hundred certainly had its own court—points to the settlement in these districts of many different tribes, each judged by its own customary laws. On the Continent, Franks, Burgundians, Alamanni, and others of whatever nation living in the Ripuarian country, were all judged, and dealt with if guilty, according to the law of the place of their birth.[2]
Ancient Norway was divided into districts called shires, and it is from this Scandinavian name the English divisional name was probably derived. The early shires or hundreds which are so clearly indicated in the North of England have left their traces also in other parts of the country. Among the probable survivals of their names are the old shires of Cornwall, and among others in old records are Pinnockshire, Blakebornshire,[3] and Kendalshire in the county of Gloucester; Upshire in Essex; and Chipshire in the north-west of Buckinghamshire. These primitive shires were early names of those districts afterwards called hundreds. The word scir in Anglo-Saxon nomenclature was also applied to ecclesiastical as well as to political divisions. Kirkshire in some parts of England appears to have been an early name for parish, and the possessions of the Archbishop of York are mentioned in Domesday Book as his scire.
