Wapentake

2 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Wapentake \Wap"en*take\ (?; 277), n. [AS. w?penge??c,
     w?pent[=a]c, from Icel. v[=a]pnat[=a]k, literally, a weapon
     taking or weapon touching, hence an expression of assent ("si
     displicuit sententia fremitu aspernantur; sin placuit frameas
     concutiunt." --Tacitus, "Germania," xi.). See {Weapon}, and
     {Take}. This name had its origin in a custom of touching


     lances or spears when the hundreder, or chief, entered on his
     office. "Cum quis accipiebat praefecturam wapentachii, die
     statuto in loco ubi consueverant congregari, omnes majores
     natu contra eum conveniebant, et descendente eo de equo suo,
     omnes assurgebant ei. Ipse vero, erecta lancea sua, ab
     omnibus secundum morem f[oe]dus accipiebat; omnes enim
     quot-quot venissent cum lanceis suis ipsius hastam tangebant,
     et ita se confirmabant per contactum armorum, pace palam
     concessa. Waepnu enim arma sonat; tac, tactus est -- hac de
     causa totus ille conventus dicitur Wapentac, eo quod per
     tactum armorum suorum ad invicem conf[oe]derati sunt." --L L.
     Edward Confessor, 33. D. Wilkins.]
     In some northern counties of England, a division, or
     district, answering to the hundred in other counties.
     Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Nottinghamshire are divided into
     wapentakes, instead of hundreds. [Written also {wapentac}.]
     --Selden. Blackstone.
     [1913 Webster]

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  WAPENTAKE. An ancient word used in England as synonymous with hundred. 
  (q.v.) Fortesc. De Laud. ch. 24.