Hundred Meaning?

Please forgive my obtusive and lazy intellect but, could someone please
tell me what a "hundred" is? As in, for example, "Horsley, a parish in the

roy...

A hundred was an administrative unit or subdivision of a county,
possibly so named from originally having contained a hundred hides (a
unit of land). They existed from around the 10th century in England
south of the Danelaw (the area conquered by the Vikings, where
hundreds were known as wapentakes, especially in Yorkshire).

Hundreds had military, judicial and administrative functions and held
courts that dealt with minor offences, but their powers gradually
declined from Tudor times.

I suggest a web search should turn up lots of information on
hundreds.

Roy Stockdill

"There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about,
and that is not being talked about."

Oscar Wilde

hundred of Longtree." Muchas gracias.

Stan Mapstone...

A detailed description of all ancient and modern administrative units

Nick...

The most famous Hundred is the Chiltern Hundreds.

"Technically speaking MPs cannot voluntarily give up their seats during a
Parliament.

"If a member wishes to resign they must accept an office of profit under the
Crown which legally disqualifies them from continuing as an MP.

"These offices - within the gift of the Chancellor of the exchequer - exist
as a purely nominal device for this purpose.

"The two offices still in use are the Chiltern Hundreds - of Stoke,
Desborough and Burnham - and the Manor of Northstead."

Jeff...

I think the Chiltern Hundreds 'pays' 20/- !!

but no job security. It is automatically vacated by the
incumbent the next time somebody applies for it.

I'm not sure how they handled the 15 (?) Ulster Unionists
who resigned at once!

Nick...

"When more than two MPs resign at a time, as for example happened when 15
Ulster unionist MPs resigned in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement on
December 17, 1985, the resignations are in theory not simultaneous but
instead spread throughout the day, with each member holding one of the
offices for a short time. The holder can subsequently be re-elected to
Parliament."

I can't verify the content of this, and given as I understand that the
content is not moderated/edited you would need to go to another source to be
sure of this.

Charles Ellson...

The official version is on:-
which, although it is not specific about what happens when a queue
forms, shows that the sequence is alternative appointments to the
Chiltern Hundreds and Northstead. The 1985 resignations/appointments
look like they started with the bosses and worked their way down but
if the MPs concerned all applied on the same document then they would
have set the order themselves if (as I suspect) multiple applications
are merely dealt with (at least in theory) in the order they are
extracted from the Chancellor of the Exchequer's "IN" tray.

"A hundred is a traditional division of an English county"

Don Aitken...

The BBC ought to be able to do better than that. The office is Steward
and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds.

Jeff...

Actually ITYWF it is
Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds