Origin of the Name of Hastings
From the authorities just quoted, it will appear that although there is great probability that Hastings existed as a distinct settlement, yet the date at which it was formed is unknown. It is quite possible that the Hastengi, who may have founded a colony here in the early days of the first Teutonic settlers, were an offshoot of the same family or tribe as that to which the Danish pirate Haesten belonged, living on the same seaboard district north of the Elbe. The remnant of this family may have continued to flourish in its old home, and some of its members may have played the same part in England, and in the English seas of the eighth century, as its earlier offshoot did in Britain and in the British seas of the fifth century. The settlement of the Hastengi was probably founded after some expedition, conducted either by a single chieftain or by a body of men representing adivision of a larger victorious host, to whom the district was allotted. We know that when these invaders settled in England, they had already their fixed laws and institutions ; that they had distinct classes in their communities, and that, in short, each settlement was rather a migration of an organized and classified body of people, than the irruption of a mixed tribe, having all things in common, and among whom no political system was as yet developed. They brought with them their families, and even their herds. No doubt the earliest task of these communities was to construct some convenient and central stronghold, for the defence and accommodation of its members and their property during the early days of the settlement. This defence, or, as the Saxons called it, " Ceaster," may have subsequently become the place of residence of the chief and his household, and the caput of his estate, the refuge for his tenants and their flocks in time of war.
The system of the allotment of land among the various families of the colony is imperfectly known. It seems that each family or house had a portion allotted to it, which was called a " hide." The quantity of land which composed a " hide " is altogether doubtful. It appears to have differed locally, and may perhaps have varied by fixed rules, according to the quality of the soil and the size of the family to whom it was apportioned, and whom it was intended to support. In the enumeration of the "hides" in several shires, given in the Liber Custumariam Saxonicum, the number of hides in " Suth Sexena " is stated to be 100,000 ; that in " Hastinge-cestre," 500. The "hundred" consisted of one hundred hides, and varied in size, not perhaps merely owing to the variation of the " hides," but also owing to the adoption of natural boundaries. The name appears to be derived from early Teutonic institutions. The Teuton hosts were divided into companies, or hundreds, of warriors, connected by social ties or kinship. A victorious army, in dividing a conquered region, would grant to each such hundred a tract of land, which would be subsequently divided by the hundred warriors into " hides." The " hundred " of the host, like the Roman legions and our own regiments, subsequently became a variable numerical division.
The Anglo-Saxon territorial division of the " hundred " first occurs at a comparatively late period, and although the hundred still continued to consist of one hundred hides for administrative purposes, the original signification was ultimately lost. The subdivision of the se1a5board areas into numerous unequal smaller " hundreds," compared with the larger hundreds of the inland areas, seems to bear a special military significance. The "rape," which is a division intermediate between the hundred and the shire, appears to be of much later origin. This division is peculiar to Sussex. There are five in all, and they consist of a -
