# Edwinstree

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**Edwinstree** was a judicial and taxation subdivision (a "*[hundred](/source/Hundred_(county_division))*") of [Hertfordshire](/source/Hertfordshire), in the east of the county, that existed from the 10th to the 19th century.

It comprised the following parishes: [Albury](/source/Albury,_Hertfordshire), [Anstey](/source/Anstey,_Hertfordshire), [Aspeden](/source/Aspenden), [Barkway](/source/Barkway), [Barley](/source/Barley,_Hertfordshire), [Brent Pelham](/source/Brent_Pelham), [Buckland](/source/Buckland,_Hertfordshire), [Buntingford](/source/Buntingford), [Furneaux Pelham](/source/Furneux_Pelham), [Great Hormead](/source/Great_Hormead), [Layston](/source/Layston), [Little Hadham](/source/Little_Hadham), [Little Hormead](/source/Little_Hormead), [Meesden](/source/Meesden), [Much Hadham](/source/Much_Hadham), [Stocking Pelham](/source/Stocking_Pelham), [Throcking](/source/Throcking), [Wakeley](/source/Wakeley,_Hertfordshire) and [Wyddiall](/source/Wyddial).[1] At the time of the Domesday Book, [Widford](/source/Widford,_Hertfordshire) was part of Edwinstree hundred but it was transferred to Braughing hundred by the 1300s.[2]

The hundred meeting point was at an open-air site called Meeting Field in Furneaux Pelham. The name suggests it was near a tree called "Edwin's Tree". An alternative name of Eddiford appears in a 14th-century record and may refer to an adjacent crossing of the [River Ash](/source/River_Ash,_Hertfordshire).[3]

The hundred was owned by the King and farmed, together with neighbouring Odsey, by the [Sheriff of Hertfordshire](/source/Sheriff_of_Hertfordshire). In 1613 it was granted to "William Whitmore and others" in trust for [Sir Julius Adelmare](/source/Julius_Caesar_(judge)).[2]

The area was settled by the Saxon tribe called the [Brahingas](/source/Brahhingas) and became part of the area of the [Middle Saxons](/source/Middle_Saxons) within the [Kingdom of Essex](/source/Kingdom_of_Essex). When Christianity was introduced into Essex in 604, Edwinstree and Braughing hundreds became part of the [Archdeaconry of Middlesex](/source/Archdeacon_of_Middlesex) within the [Diocese of East Saxons](/source/Diocese_of_London).[3]

Haslam proposes that the hundred was originally part of a larger "proto-hundred" which comprised the five East Hertfordshire hundreds of Braughing, Edwinstree, Odsey, Broadwater and Hertford; this territory was originally created to support the two [Burhs](/source/Burh) at [Hertford](/source/Hertford), on opposite banks of the River Lea, built by [King Edward the Elder](/source/Edward_the_Elder) in 913 to defend against the [Danes](/source/Danelaw). The interlocking nature of Braughing and Edwinstree hundreds is taken as evidence that they were originally part of a single unit that was later subdivided into hundreds.[4]

## References

1. ["A Topographical Dictionary of England | British History Online"](https://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-dict/england). *www.british-history.ac.uk*. Retrieved 2021-12-28.

1. Page, William (1902). [*The Victoria history of the county of Hertford*](https://archive.org/details/cu31924088434463/page/n28/mode/1up). Vol. 4. Westminster. pp. 1–3.

1. Williamson, Tom (2010). [*The Origins of Hertfordshire*](https://books.google.com/books?id=ztqCoaEtehsC&q=history+of+hertfordshire). Univ of Hertfordshire Press. p. 96. ISBN 978-1-905313-95-2.

1. Haslam, Jeremy (2024-01-01). ["Burhs burghal territories and hundreds in the English central Midlands in the early tenth century Part II - paginated version"](https://www.academia.edu/126278058/Burhs_burghal_territories_and_hundreds_in_the_English_central_Midlands_in_the_early_tenth_century_Part_II_paginated_version?email_work_card=reading-history). *Landscape History*

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