Old Irish Land Units Compare To Measures in The Domesday Book

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The document discusses various historical land units used in Ireland and other parts of Britain, including acres, plowlands, townlands, and their typical sizes and relationships to each other. There was significant regional variation in land units and definitions.

Land units varied significantly across different parts of Ireland. For example, a gneeve could represent 1/12 of a plowland in some areas but 1/6 of a quarter in other areas. The size of basic units like acres also differed between counties and regions.

Some common land units mentioned included gneeve, plowland, seisreach, ballyboe, tate, poll, and townland. A gneeve could typically represent around 10 acres while a plowland might be around 120 acres. A seisreach was sometimes used to mean a plowland or six horses. A townland could be a parish or vary between around 1 to over 1000 acres.

Ballybetagh, 1609, Ulster: = 4 Quarters @ 6 Ballyboes = 16 Tath @ 60 English A in Monaghan = 960A in Monaghan = c. 1882.

35 A in Fermagh [100/51] in Cavan, 60A unit called a Polle = Tath Sessarh [Seisrach] = 1/3 of Ballyboe {seems wrong} Gnieve = plowland {?} // Gneeve = 1/6 Quarter of Townland Cantron = 1/4 Quarter, Limerick meere = 1/4 quarter gneeve or gniomh = "parcel of land" = 1/12 plowland 3 plowlands/Quarter, Kerry Gneeve = 1/6 of a Quarter = 1/24 of Townland, Connaught Cantron = 1/4 of a Quarter = 30 "native" Acres // if land could serve eight cows, that was one "cow," = 1/8 gneeve // cork plowland = 12 gneeve @ 4 cuss both plowland and gneeve of variable area 40,20,260,120,9,20,6,20,16,11 Acres //_Ireland 1170-1509_ at 265 19th cent summary in Irish Ordnance Survey 10A = Gneeve; 2 Gneeve = Sessiagh; 3 Sessigahs = Tate or Ballyboe 2 ballyboe = plowland, seisreagh or carrow [maybe townland] so 12 gneeve/plowland 4 plowlands = ballybetagh, townland 30 ballybetagh = trioch Cead, Barony // in Connach, the 12c King Toirrdelbach or his sun Ruaidri created _baile_ as holding of distinct lineage or sept ... if too small, assessed as a _leathbhaile_ or half-baile .... if too big, a double baile or _dhabhaile_ assessments notionally a fixed number of customary acres, but <> area! origin of these townlands maybe the pop. growth before the 7c Plague // Evans argues the gneeve is 1/12 of a townland, not a plowland distinct from a cow's grass, subdivided into 8 cleets (half of a foot) // from seminal article on townlands, 1861: traditionally 185 Trichaceds = 5550 bailebiatach = 66,600 seisreach "thirty hundreds" "victuallers town" "plowlands" assuming 30 bailebiatach/trichaced & 12 seisreach/bailebiatach "seisreach" means six horses; compare 1840 AD 62,205 [email protected] if nom 120 Irish A/seisreach then 7,992,000 IA < 50% of Ireland's area explained as woods, waste, mountains & bogs ignored these plowlands also estimated not measured tricha-ced or cantred <> barony, eg 325 baronies or 271 if undivided ancient bailebetach maybe parish sized, by 1840 2422 parishes/Ireland actual townlands vary in size: 7012A ... 1.25A largest in mountains, smallest tend to be in valley bottoms size does _not_ vary by general productivity of the land county averages 457A in Down, 172A in Monaghan Monaghan featured "tates" nominally 1/16th Bailebetach or 60A Cavan 16 poll/ballybet; poll = 2 gal = 4pottle = 8 quarts = 16 pints

{if 960A/ballybet, as Monaghan, then poll = 60A; pint = 3.75A} author argues these 1/16ths of balleybetach makes small townlands cf Down" ballyboe "cowland" or carewe estimated as 60A 12/ballybetach {720A} as 3/quarter {180A} Armagh ballyboe = "town" of 3 sessighs, here "thirds" not "sixths," (_not_ seisreach, plowland) 100A and its appurtenances are the ballyboe Limerick quarter = 4 meeres, sudivided into gneeve gneeve nominally 1/12 of a plowland Kerry quarter of 360A = 3 plowlands of 120A town or villa generally means 60 or 120A, plus their appurtenances // Evans, _Irish Folk Ways_ av townland 325 A, av rural townland population "perhaps 50" claims size based on fertility hilly townlands as much as 2000A, previously summer common pasturage cow's grass the effective unit in many parts of the country nws the Ordnance Survey (1830..1842) focus on plowlands, seisrach clachans and openfields, each house in cluster had a small garden, gort usually worked infield with ards light plow certainly cannot break outfield // 2 New History of Ireland n3 at 407 Munster, gniomh, gneeve, = 1/12 plowland so nom. 10A Connacht = 1/6 quarter, so nom. 20A Westmeath = plowland of 120A earlier note 2.5 statutory A/local "acre" // 2004 article on meaning of _Baile_ in Ireland generally means settlement or settled place, old poem has 5520 _bailedha_ in Ireland, each of 6 _seisreacha_ {unclear is _seisreacha_ means only "sixth" or "plowland"} [Battle of Magh Leana, O'Curry, 1855] argues 60 ounces of gold = 1020 [Eng]A after Kelly,EIF at 594: 12 milkcows/ozAu, best arable at 24 cows/_cumal_@34EngA compare area of townland of Fennor at 1047A, matched to that grant ... effectively the size and meaning of _baile_ varies by context reads old grants to be worth oc-arie or half a bo-aire's farm c. 25..30 EngA, even if cumal = 6 cows {author insecure about ratio} concludes a 11..13c _baile_ not larger that one farm or "rath" even the Ordnance Survey avoids "townland," prefers seisreach, plowland biatach is commoner paying food rent, successor to oc-aire & bo-aire reading one cow per biatach religious taxes --> _baile_ is free farmstead such farmstead might use laborers, inherit land from kin some could be larger than oc-aire farm showing studied sources if heir had more land than manageable, the rent to daer_biataig these are those also receiving a "fief" of land or non-livestock later these little farms integrated into larger estates, _ferann_ in Gaelic taxation bailebetach usually divided into 16, or 12 units author argues these are "packages" of convenience for tax evaluation later evolved into the later visible balleybetagh, townland ===== http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/IRELAND/2005-03/1111325227 tuath a petty kingdom, an area under a chieftain, 97 in all of Ireland

tricha-ct an area supporting 3,000 fighting men, pre-Norman territories occupied by the native Irish barony / cantred civil areas divided within county boundaries, 273 in all of Ireland ballybetagh - a measure of land, one thirtieth of a barony carrow / quarter / quarterland four to a ballybetagh (abt. 240 acres) ballboe / cowland three to a quarterland (about 80 acres) tate / tathe about three or four to a quarter (about 60-80 acres) sessiagh an Irish unit of spatial measurement, varying 8-20 acres gnieve an Irish unit of spatial measurement, two to a sessiagh capell land in Kilkenny equal to a ploughland in Tipperary about 400 statute acres ploughland / carucate / villate the amount of land worked by one plough in a year, abt. 120 acres cartron in Connacht 30 acres in Longford 60 acres collop / colpach the amount of grazing land that would support a horse, two cows or equivalent. stint not actually a land measurement but an allowance of grazing rights on commonage. For instance one tenant may have a stint of two soum and another maybe four soum. soum unit of grazing of mountain commonage equal to a collop horseman bed in Kilkenny and Waterford equivalent to a cowland elsewhere equivalent to a capell townland the smallest civil division of land, over 60,000 in all of Ireland great acre 20 statute acres English / Statute acre amount of land ploughed in a day by a yoke of oxen 4,840 square yards (0.404 hectares) Irish acre 7,840 square yards Scottish / Cunningham acre 6,250 square yards Cunningham perch six and a quarter yards

Statute perch / square perch 160 to a statute acre, 30 square yards Rood quarter of a statute acre, 40 square perches Chain 22 yards Irish perch seven yards perch a quarter of a chain, five and a half yards ===== domesday acre, Dorsetshire = 5 modern acres 48 " = 240 modern acres = Dorsetshire & Lincolnshire hide where cacrrcate or plowgang = 120 modern acres Eyton finds domesday pertica = 16.5 modern feet, aka [small] virga 4 virgae = linear acre [linear] quarentina = 660 feet = 40 perches league = 12 quarentina = 120 [linear] acres e.g. wood at Wichampton is 1 quarentine long x 8 acres breadth square or areal or extent pertica = 30.25 sq yd 160 sq pertica = areal acre = modern acre 10 sq quarentine = 40 modern acres 1 areal League = 12 sq. Quarentine = 120 modern acres c.216 modern acres = sulung of Kent = 80 acres Norman sulung or solin = aratrum = mansa = viculus sulung is a plowland but <> carrucate Domesday virgate is highly variable 15, 16, 18, 20,24,30,32,60 acres usually 4 or 8 virgates/hide and 4 virgates/wista vineyard by arpent of twice forty perches, but probably variable Devonshire hide of 4 "virgates" each of 4 "ferlings" .. this is a small area, about 10 or 15 modern acres distinct from town fourths, ferling, or wards or corn ferling = quarter furlong = furrow long = length of a furrow of 10 modern acre field modern acre: 40 perches [= 1 furrow length] x 4 perches [acre breadth] hida or hide, oldest historic areal unit, from Ine's laws of 7c hyd, ASaxon "house" or "habitation" cf modern hut or hat ("covering") Bede's maintained }_familia_ implies family of some importance, as poor tiller could not maintain a such a "suit" hydeland = area worked by one plow, moderate number of people in familia argues: area of hyde varies by fertility, arability and convenience 100 acres, 96, 170, 120 (six score) Devon usually 480 acres [sometimes 2x or 4x in area] incl 24 acre meadow,1 acre wood,1 hide pasture sometimes Edw Confessor's hide relate to WmI's carucates 6 carucate, 13.5 carucate, 18 carucates cf so.Lancs 6 bovates = hide, rest of England usually 8 bovates/hide note Lancs "acre" = 7840 sqyds, Cheshire "acre" = 10240 sqyds when statute [modern] acre = 4840 sq.yds = 43,560 sqft

Kentish jugum = half a plowland = oxen's worth, so 4 ox/plow cf Ellis argues 4 juga/solin and jugum<>jugera leuca = leuga = leuua = "league," all used for woodland area = 480 perches long = 12 quarentines [or furlong] @ 40 perches long = linear league = 1.5 miles, though range 1..2 miles coscet, free cotter, gets 5+ acres, pays hearth-penny but not tribute e.g. works Mondays for the lord & 3 days/week in August cf cotarii,coteri, cotmanni, cottar are servile lead waggon-load = 1680# = 15x112# = 21x80#, 80 = "small hundred" 5#/cutts 14 cutti/fontinel = 70# 24 fontinels = carreta = 1680# = plaustrata = 10 tabulae@168# summa = horseload of salt = 15 bullio = c.8 London bushels mitta = 8 or 10 bushels, also measured wheat and ale by AngloSaxons 2 ombra [amber?] = mitta sextaria of uncertain amount, often a liquid measure mite = minuta = half farthing = old styca, usually of washed bronze ===== Dove argues original AngloSaxon shilling = 4 "pennies" cuz divide like the romans, multiples of 12s & 240 parts/ compare treaty with Alfred and Guthrum uses 5d shilling ie multiples of 5s, 288+ parts/ [Danes and Normans divided by 12s] reconcile this by ommitting acres, eg estimate 36 as if 30 etc so if valuation is AngloSaxon land, the actual area is 120% given Dove concludes the ASaxon denarius was 20 units, compare to Norman at 24 {unclear if he's hinting at grains troy but oversimplifying} if only "wara" taxed, cd mean an ASaxon hide of 288 A taxed as if 120 A

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