Carucate
- Therodis a historical unit of length equal to5+1⁄2yards. It may have originated from the typical length of a mediaevalox-goad.There are 4 rods in onechain.
- Thefurlong(meaning furrow length) was the distance a team of oxen could plough without resting. This was standardised to be exactly 40 rods or 10 chains.
- Anacrewas the amount of land tillable by one man behind one team of eight oxen in one day. Traditional acres were long and narrow due to the difficulty in turning the plough and thevalue of river front access.
- Anoxgangwas the amount of land tillable by one ox in a ploughing season. This could vary from village to village, but was typically around 15 acres.
- Avirgatewas the amount of land tillable by two oxen in a ploughing season.
- Acarucatewas the amount of land tillable by a team of eight oxen in a ploughing season. This was equal to 8 oxgangs or 4 virgates.
Thecarucateorcarrucate(Medieval Latin:carrūcātaorcarūcāta)[1]was a medieval unit of land area approximating the land a plough team of eightoxencouldtillin a single annual season. It was known by different regional names and fell under different forms of tax assessment.
England
[edit]The carucate was named for thecarrucaheavy ploughthat began to appear in England in the late 9th century, which may have been introduced during theViking invasions of England.[2]It was also known as aploughlandorplough(Old English:plōgesland,"plough's land" ) in theDanelawand usually, but not always, excluded the land's suitability for winter vegetables and desirability to remainfallow in crop rotation.The tax levied on each carucate came to be known as "carucage".Though a carucate might nominally be regarded as an area of 120acres(49 hectares), and can usefully be equated to certain definitions of the hide, its variation over time and depending on soil and fertility makes its actual figure wildly variable.[3]The Danelaw carucates were subdivided into eighths:oxgangsor bovates based on the area a yoked pair of oxen could till in a year. In the rest of England, the land was reckoned inhideswhich were divided into fouryardlands,later known asvirgates.
Scotland
[edit]Aploughgatewas theScottishequivalent in the south and east of the country. Even more so than in England, the variable land quality in Scotland led to ploughgates of varying sizes, although the area was notionally understood as 100Scots acres.Many sources say that four ploughgates made up adaugh,but in other places it would have appeared to have been the equivalent of one daugh exactly. As in the Danelaw, ploughgates were subdivided intooxgangs,again usually by eighths.
Wales
[edit]Cattle and oxen were a central part of theLaws of the ancient Celts,by theWelsh Middle Ages,oxen were an integral part ofWelsh Law,and an important part of the legal valuations used in assessing land value, the wealth of personal holdings and determining compensations (such as theGalanas). Carucates are found throughout theCyfraith Hywel(Law's ofHywel Dda).
In 1086, theDomesday Bookrecords a number of entries forcommotesin Wales. These commotes, (that had come underAnglo-Normanpossession, but were still part of Welsh law and customs) were assessed for military service and taxation. Whereas the English possessions obligations were given in hides, the Welsh obligations were rated in carucates. This was also true forArchenfieldinHerefordshirewhich may indicate the area maintained the Welsh systems.[4][5]
See also
[edit]- Aratrum terrae
- English units:
- Scottish unitsin the East Highlands:
- Scottish unitsin the West Highlands:
References
[edit]- ^Oxford English Dictionary,1st ed. "carucate,n."Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1888.
- ^White Jr., Lynn, The Life of the Silent Majority, pg. 88 of Life and Thought in the Early Middle Ages, ed. Robert S. Hoyt, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. 1967
- ^See e.g. Stenton, F.M., 'Introduction', in Foster, C.W. & Longley, T. (eds.),The Lincolnshire Domesday and the Lindsey Survey,Lincoln Record Society, XIX, 1924, especially pp. ix-xix.
- ^Watkin, Morgan (1965)."ABO blood groups, human history and language in Herefordshire with special reference to the low B frequency in Europe"(PDF).Nature.20:84.doi:10.1038/hdy.1965.10.PMID14300930.S2CID27834923.
- ^"Dorstone History Society - 6000 years of history".Dorstone History Society.Retrieved10 December2021.