Legal Definitions - cantred

Definition: Cantred (kan-tred) is a county subdivision that had its own local court. The term comes from the Welsh words "cant" meaning "hundred" and "tref" meaning "village".

Examples:

• In medieval England, a cantred was a group of adjoining townships that may have consisted of an area taxed at one hundred hides.
• Another explanation of the term "hundred" is that the unit may have consisted of one hundred households, or the area had to supply one hundred fighting men for the national defense.
• The populace of a cantred was also referred to as a hundred.
• A cantred had its own local court, known as the hundred court.
• In the United States, hundreds existed in colonial Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Today, they only exist in Delaware.

These examples illustrate that a cantred was a county subdivision that had its own local court and was made up of adjoining townships. The term "hundred" referred to the populace of the subdivision and may have been based on the number of hides, households, or fighting men in the area. Cantreds also had their own local court, known as the hundred court, and were a political division derived from the English county division.