200px, Pembrokeshire showing Narberth Hundred
The Hundred of Narberth was a
hundred
100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101.
In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...
in
Pembrokeshire,
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
. An administrative and legal division, it was formed by the
Act of Union of 1536 from parts of the pre-
Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
cantrefs of
Penfro (the
commote
A commote (Welsh ''cwmwd'', sometimes spelt in older documents as ''cymwd'', plural ''cymydau'', less frequently ''cymydoedd'')''Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru'' (University of Wales Dictionary), p. 643 was a secular division of land in Medieval Wales ...
of Coedrath) and
Cantref Gwarthaf (the commote of Efelfre).
Name
It derived its
Welsh name,
Arberth, from the town and district of the same name, which means "(district) by the wood" (i.e. the forest of Coedrath),
and which was the headquarters of the hundred.
Region
The hundred spanned the
linguistic boundary, with the parishes of Velfrey being identified by
George Owen as Welsh-speaking, and the southern coastal part being English-speaking, part of
Little England beyond Wales. The area in 1887 was .
Demographics
The hundred incorporated twenty two
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...
es. The parliamentary election polling book for 1812 is held at the National Library of Wales. The 1821 census provided detailed demographics for the hundred. The total population was 11,321, living in 2,249 properties. At the 1831 census, the hundred had a population of 11,942 in 2,343 houses. The population was quoted as 11,469 in an 1887 gazetteer.
Land tax assessments for 1857 to 1949 are held at Pembrokeshire Archives.
Discontinuation
The hundred courts declined from the 17th century, and most of their powers were extinguished with the establishment of
county courts in 1867. Until 1974 Wales was divided into
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
es, which to some extent coincided with ecclesiastical parishes, and in 1975 it was divided into
communities.
The jurisdiction of hundred courts was finally curtailed by the
Administration of Justice Act 1977.
References
{{Pembrokeshire hundreds
History of Pembrokeshire
Narberth, Pembrokeshire
