tiently no man was ſuffered to abide in England above forty days, unleſs he were enrolled in ſome tithing or decennary[1]. One of the principal inhabitants of the tithing is annually appointed to preſide over the reſt, being called the tithing-man, the headborough, (words which ſpeak their own etymology) and in ſome countries the borſholder, or borough’s-ealder, being ſuppoſed the diſcreeteſt man in the borough, town, or tithing[2].
Tithings, towns, or vills, are of the ſame ſignification in law; and are ſaid to have had, each of them, originally a church and celebration of divine ſervice, ſacraments, and burials[3]: though that ſeems to be rather an eccleſiaſtical, than a civil diſtinction. The word town or vill is indeed, by the alteration of times and language, now become a generical term, comprehending under it the ſeveral ſpecies of cities, boroughs, and common towns. A city is a town incorporated, which is or hath been the ſee of a biſhop; and though the biſhoprick be diſſolved, as at Weſtminſter, yet ſtill it remaineth a city[4]. A borough is now underſtood to be a town, either corporate or not, that ſendeth burgeſſes to parliament[5]. Other towns there are, to the number ſir Edward Coke ſays[6] of 8803, which are neither cities nor boroughs; ſome of which have the privileges of markets, and others not; but both are equally towns in law. To ſeveral of theſe towns there are ſmall appendages belonging, called hamlets; which are taken notice of in the ſtatute of Exeter[7], which makes frequent mention of entire vills, demi-vills, and hamlets. Entire vills ſir Henry Spelman[8] conjectures to have conſiſted of ten freemen, or frank-pledges, demi-vills of five, and hamlets of leſs than five. Theſe little collections of houſes are ſometimes under the ſame adminiſtration as the town itſelf, ſometimes governed by ſeparate officers; in which laſt caſe they are, to ſome purpoſes in law, looked upon as diſtinct townſhips. Theſe towns,
