WAPENTAKE  , anciently the

principal administrative division of the counties of York, Lincoln, Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Rutland, corresponding to the hundred in the southern counties of England . In many cases, however, ancient wapentakes are now called hundreds . North of the Tees, Sadberg in Durham is the only district which was caller: a wapentake, and the rest of the ancient administrative divisions of the three northern counties were called wards . The word wapentake seems to have been first applied to the periodical meetings of the magnates of a district; and, if we may believe the 12th century compilation known as the Leges Edwardi, it took its name from the custom in accordance with which they touched the spear of their newly-appointed magistrate with their own spears and so confirmed his appointment . Probably it was also usual for them to signify their approval of a proposal by the clash of their arms, as was the practice among the Scandinavian peoples . Wapentakes are not found outside the parts of England which were settled by the Danes . They varied in size in different counties ; those of Yorkshire, for instance, being very much larger than those of Lincolnshire . As a general rule each wapentake had its own court, which had the same jurisdiction as the hundred courts of the southern counties . In some cases, however, a group of wapentakes had a single court . It should be noticed that the court was styled wapentagium simply, and not curia wa pentagii . See Sir Henry Ellis, General Introduction to Domesday Book; W . W .

Skeat, Etymological English Dictionary; W . Stubbs, Constitutional History; and H . M . Chadwick, Studies on Anglo-Saxon Institutions (1905) . (G . J .