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The hide was an English unit of land measurement originally intended to represent the amount of land sufficient to support a household. It was traditionally taken to be 120 historical acres or 48 acres (19 hectares) , but was in fact a measure of value and tax assessment , including obligations for food-rent ( feorm ), maintenance and repair of bridges and fortifications, manpower for the army ( fyrd ), and (eventually) the geld land tax .

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52-503: Hübner is a Germanic surname, sometimes spelled Huebner or Hubner . The name means an agricultural worker, a farmer, possibly and specifically one who worked a "hube", which was a piece of land roughly equivalent to the English measurement of a " hide ", about 120 acres . The appearance of this surname is attributed to medieval feudal Germany. Notable people with this surname include: Hide (unit) The hide's method of calculation

104-457: A hectare . Based upon the international yard and pound agreement of 1959 , an acre may be declared as exactly 4,046.8564224 square metres . The acre is sometimes abbreviated ac but is usually spelled out as the word "acre". Traditionally, in the Middle Ages , an acre was conceived of as the area of land that could be ploughed by one man using a team of eight oxen in one day. The acre

156-410: A 'family', which may have had an extended meaning. It is uncertain whether it meant the immediate family or a more extensive group. Charles-Edwards suggests that in its early usage it referred to the land of one family, worked by one plough and that ownership of a hide conferred the status of a freeman, to whom Stenton referred as "the independent master of a peasant household". Hides of land formed

208-508: A different origin, signifying the amount of land which could be cultivated by one plough team as opposed to a family holding, but all later became artificial fiscal assessments. In some counties in Domesday Book (e.g. Cambridgeshire), the hide is sometimes shown as consisting of 120 acres (30 acres to the virgate), but as Darby explains: "The acres are, of course, not units of area, but geld acres, i.e. units of assessment". In other words, this

260-555: A hide had a tax burden equivalent to three of his oxen and close upon one-third of the annual value of his land. A more normal rate was 2 shillings on each hide. Domesday Book , recording the results of the survey made on the orders of William I in 1086, states in hides (or carucates or sulungs as the case might be) the assessed values of estates throughout the area covered by the survey. Usually it gives this information for 1086 and 1066, but some counties were different and only showed this information for one of those dates. By that time

312-490: A hide of land to be worth £1, or, put another way, for land producing £1 of income to be assessed at one hide." A number of early documents referring to hides have survived, but these can only be seen as steps in the development of the concept of the hide and do not enable us to see the full story. The document known as the Tribal Hidage is a very early list thought to date possibly from the 7th century, but known only from

364-476: A later and unreliable manuscript. It is a list of tribes and small kingdoms owing tribute to an overlord and of the proportionate liability or quota imposed on each of them. This is expressed in terms of hides, though we have no details as to how these were arrived at nor how they were converted into a cash liability. The Burghal Hidage (early 10th century) is a list of boroughs giving the hide assessments of neighbouring districts which were liable to contribute to

416-517: A strip that could be ploughed by one man and an ox or horse in a morning. There were many variants of the morgen , differing between the different German territories, ranging from 1 ⁄ 2 to 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 acres (2,000 to 10,100 m ). It was also used in Old Prussia , in the Balkans, Norway , and Denmark , where it was equal to about two-thirds acre (2,700 m ). Statutory values for

468-464: A tax on land in 1193-4 to raise money for King Richard's ransom. A hide was usually made up of four virgates although exceptionally Sussex had eight virgates to the hide. A similar measure was used in the northern Danelaw , known as a carucate , consisting of eight bovates , and Kent used a system based on a "sulung", consisting of four yokes , which was larger than the hide and on occasion treated as equivalent to two hides. These measures had

520-535: A territory by the number of families which it supported, as (for instance), in Latin, terra x familiarum meaning 'a territory of ten families'. In the Anglo-Saxon version of the same work hid or hiwan is used in place of terra ... familiarum . Other documents of the period show the same equivalence and it is clear that the word hide originally signified land sufficient for the support of a peasant and his household or of

572-532: Is "40 perches [ rods ] in length and four in breadth", meaning 220 yards by 22 yards. As detailed in the diagram, an acre was roughly the amount of land tillable by a yoke of oxen in one day. Before the enactment of the metric system , many countries in Europe used their own official acres. In France, the traditional unit of area was the arpent carré , a measure based on the Roman system of land measurement. The acre

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624-528: Is approximately 69.57 yards, or 208 feet 9 inches (63.61 metres), on a side. As a unit of measure, an acre has no prescribed shape; any area of 43,560 square feet is an acre. In the international yard and pound agreement of 1959, the United States and five countries of the Commonwealth of Nations defined the international yard to be exactly 0.9144 metre. The US authorities decided that, while

676-412: Is based on the equivalent German word Hube , a unit of land a farmer might own. Much work has been done investigating the hidation of various counties and also in attempts to discover more about the origin and development of the hide and the purposes for which it was used, but without producing many clear conclusions which would help the general reader. Those requiring more information may wish to consult

728-400: Is equal to the following customary units: Perhaps the easiest way for US residents to envision an acre is as a rectangle measuring 88 yards by 55 yards ( 1 ⁄ 10 of 880 yards by 1 ⁄ 16 of 880 yards), about 9 ⁄ 10 the size of a standard American football field . To be more exact, one acre is 90.75% of a 100-yd-long by 53.33-yd-wide American football field (without

780-550: Is in acres (8 kanal = 1 acre) and muraba (25 acres = 1 muraba = 200 kanal ), jerib , wiswa and gunta . Its use as a primary unit for trade in the United Kingdom ceased to be permitted from 1 October 1995, due to the 1994 amendment of the Weights and Measures Act , where it was replaced by the hectare  – though its use as a supplementary unit continues to be permitted indefinitely. This

832-516: Is now obscure: different properties with the same hidage could vary greatly in extent even in the same county. Following the Norman Conquest of England , the hidage assessments were recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, and there was a tendency for land producing £ 1 of income per year to be assessed at 1 hide. The Norman kings continued to use the unit for their tax assessments until the end of

884-623: Is perpetuated in Icelandic and the Faroese akur “field (wheat)”, Norwegian and Swedish åker , Danish ager “field”, cognate with German Acker , Dutch akker , Latin ager , Sanskrit ajr , and Greek αγρός ( agros ). In English, an obsolete variant spelling was aker . According to the Act on the Composition of Yards and Perches , dating from around 1300, an acre

936-408: Is possible. The Norman kings, after the Norman Conquest , continued to use the system which they found in place. Geld was levied at intervals on the existing hidage assessments. In 1084, William I laid an exceptionally heavy geld of six shillings upon every hide. At the time the value of the hide was approximating twenty shillings a year, and the price of an ox was two shillings. Thus the holder of

988-559: Is related to the square mile, with 640 acres making up one square mile. One mile is 5280 feet (1760 yards). In western Canada and the western United States, divisions of land area were typically based on the square mile, and fractions thereof. If the square mile is divided into quarters, each quarter has a side length of 1 ⁄ 2 mile (880 yards) and is 1 ⁄ 4 square mile in area, or 160 acres. These subunits are typically then again divided into quarters, with each side being 1 ⁄ 4 mile long, and being 1 ⁄ 16 of

1040-603: Is sometimes called the "Spanish acre" in the continental United States. The acre is commonly used in many current and former Commonwealth countries by custom, and in a few it continues as a statute measure . These include Antigua and Barbuda, American Samoa , The Bahamas , Belize, the British Virgin Islands , Canada , the Cayman Islands , Dominica , the Falkland Islands , Grenada , Ghana , Guam ,

1092-451: Is still a statutory measure in the United States. Both the international acre and the US survey acre are in use, but they differ by only four parts per million (see below). The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land. The acre is used in many established and former Commonwealth of Nations countries by custom. In a few, it continues as a statute measure , although not since 2010 in

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1144-592: The petite acre (56 to 65 ca). The Normandy acre was usually divided in 4 vergées ( roods ) and 160 square perches , like the English acre. The Normandy acre was equal to 1.6 arpents , the unit of area more commonly used in Northern France outside of Normandy. In Canada, the Paris arpent used in Quebec before the metric system was adopted is sometimes called "French acre" in English, even though

1196-528: The Mendenhall Order of 1893. Surveyors in the United States use both international and survey feet, and consequently, both varieties of acre. Since the difference between the US survey acre and international acre (0.016 square metres, 160 square centimetres or 24.8 square inches), is only about a quarter of the size of an A4 sheet or US letter , it is usually not important which one is being discussed. Areas are seldom measured with sufficient accuracy for

1248-643: The Northern Mariana Islands , Jamaica , Montserrat , Samoa , Saint Lucia , St. Helena , St. Kitts and Nevis , St. Vincent and the Grenadines , Turks and Caicos , the United Kingdom, the United States and the US Virgin Islands . In the Republic of Ireland , the hectare is legally used under European units of measurement directives ; however, the acre (the same standard statute as used in

1300-499: The burhs and to help in their initial construction and upkeep. A land tax known as geld was first levied in 990 and this became known as the Danegeld, as it was used to buy off the Danes who were then raiding and invading the country. It was raised again for the same purpose on several occasions. The already existing system of assessment of land in hides was utilised to raise the geld, which

1352-511: The end zone ). The full field, including the end zones, covers about 1.32 acres (0.53 ha). For residents of other countries, the acre might be envisioned as rather more than half of a 1.76 acres (0.71 ha) football pitch . The word acre is derived from the Norman , attested for the first time in a text of Fécamp in 1006 to the meaning of «agrarian measure». Acre dates back to the old Scandinavian akr “cultivated field, ploughed land” which

1404-437: The 11th century but to charters of the 7th and 8th centuries. Nevertheless, the hide became the basis of an artificial system of assessment of land for purposes of taxation, which lasted for a long period. The most consistent aspect of the hide is described as follows by Sally Harvey (referring particularly to Domesday Book): "Both Maitland and Vinogradoff long ago noticed that there was a general tendency throughout Domesday for

1456-424: The 11th century, Northamptonshire was assigned 3,200 hides, while Staffordshire was assigned only 500. This number was then divided up between the hundreds in the county. Theoretically there were 100 hides in each hundred, but this proportion was often not maintained, for example because of changes in the hundreds or in the estates comprising them or because assessments were altered when the actual cash liability

1508-451: The 12th century. The hide was divided into four yardlands or virgates . It was hence nominally equivalent in area to a carucate , a unit used in the Danelaw . The Anglo-Saxon word for a hide was hid (or its synonym hiwisc ). Both words are believed to be derived from the same root hiwan , which meant "family". Bede in his Ecclesiastical History (c. 731) describes the extent of

1560-560: The Paris arpent and the Normandy acre were two very different units of area in ancient France (the Paris arpent became the unit of area of French Canada, whereas the Normandy acre was never used in French Canada). In Germany, the Netherlands, and Eastern Europe the traditional unit of area was Morgen . Like the acre, the morgen was a unit of ploughland, representing

1612-537: The UK, and not for decades in Australia , New Zealand , and South Africa . In many places where it is not a statute measure, it is still lawful to "use for trade" if given as supplementary information and is not used for land registration . One acre equals 1 ⁄ 640 (0.0015625) square mile, 4,840 square yards, 43,560 square feet, or about 4,047 square metres (0.4047 hectares ) (see below). While all modern variants of

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1664-482: The UK, not the old Irish acre , which was of a different size) is still widely used, especially in agriculture. In India, residential plots are measured in square feet or square metre, while agricultural land is measured in acres. In Sri Lanka , the division of an acre into 160  perches or 4  roods is common. In Pakistan, residential plots are measured in kanal (20 marla = 1  kanal = 605 sq yards) and open/agriculture land measurement

1716-469: The US survey acre contain 1 ⁄ 640 of a square mile or 4,840 square yards, but alternative definitions of a yard are used (see survey foot and survey yard ), so the exact size of an acre depends upon the yard upon which it is based. The US survey acre is about 4,046.872 square metres; its exact value ( ⁠4046 + 13,525,426 / 15,499,969 ⁠  m ) is based on an inch defined by 1 metre = 39.37 inches exactly, as established by

1768-502: The acre contain 4,840 square yards, there are alternative definitions of a yard, so the exact size of an acre depends upon the particular yard on which it is based. Originally, an acre was understood as a strip of land sized at forty perches (660 ft, or 1  furlong ) long and four perches (66 ft) wide; this may have also been understood as an approximation of the amount of land a yoke of oxen could plough in one day (a furlong being "a furrow long"). A square enclosing one acre

1820-502: The acre were enacted in England, and subsequently the United Kingdom, by acts of: Historically, the size of farms and landed estates in the United Kingdom was usually expressed in acres (or acres, roods , and perches ), even if the number of acres was so large that it might conveniently have been expressed in square miles. For example, a certain landowner might have been said to own 32,000 acres of land, not 50 square miles of land. The acre

1872-446: The assessments showed many anomalies. Many of the hide assessments on lands held by tenants-in-chief were reduced between 1066 and 1086 in order to effect an exemption from or reduction in tax; this again shows that the hide is a tax assessment, not an area of land. Sometimes, the assessment in hides is given both for the whole manor and for the demesne land (i.e. the lord's own demesne) included in it. Sally Harvey has suggested that

1924-507: The basis for tax levies used to equip free warriors ( miles ) of the Holy Roman Empire . In 807 it was specified that in the region west of the Seine, for example, a vassal who held four or five hides was responsible for showing up to a muster in person, fully equipped for war. Three men who each possessed one hide, though, merely were grouped such that two of them were responsible for equipping

1976-498: The defence of the borough, each contributing to the maintenance and manning of the fortifications in proportion to the number of hides for which they answered. The County Hidage (early 11th century) lists the total number of hides to be assessed on each county and it seems that by this time at least the total number of hides in a given area was imposed from above. Each county was assigned a round number of hides, for which it would be required to answer. For instance, at an early date in

2028-532: The different definitions to be detectable. In October 2019, the US National Geodetic Survey and the National Institute of Standards and Technology announced their joint intent to end the "temporary" continuance of the US survey foot, mile, and acre units (as permitted by their 1959 decision, above), with effect from the end of 2022. The Puerto Rican cuerda (0.39 ha; 0.97 acres)

2080-664: The following works in addition to those quoted in the Citations: Acre The acre ( / ˈ eɪ k ər / AY -kər ) is a unit of land area used in the British imperial and the United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet ), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, 1 ⁄ 640 of a square mile, 4,840 square yards, or 43,560 square feet, and approximately 4,047 m , or about 40% of

2132-413: The number of hides for which an estate should answer. As each local community had the task of deciding how its quota of hides should be divided between the lands held by that community, different communities used different criteria, depending on the type of land held and on the way in which an individual's wealth was reckoned within that community, it is self-evident that no single comprehensive definition

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2184-485: The ploughland data in Domesday Book was intended to be used for a complete re-assessment but, if so, it was never actually made. The Pipe Rolls , where they are available, show that levies were based largely on the old assessments, though with some amendments and exemptions. The last recorded levy was for 1162-3 during the reign of Henry II , but the tax was not formally abolished and Henry II thought of using it again between 1173 and 1175. The old assessments were used for

2236-448: The refined definition would apply nationally in all other respects, the US survey foot (and thus the survey acre) would continue 'until such a time as it becomes desirable and expedient to readjust [it]'. By inference, an "international acre" may be calculated as exactly 4,046.856 422 4 square metres but it does not have a basis in any international agreement. Both the international acre and

2288-458: The system during the 350 years which elapsed between the time of Bede and the Domesday Book remain obscure. According to Sir Frank Stenton , "Despite the work of many great scholars the hide of early English texts remains a term of elusive meaning." The fact that assessments consistently tended to be made in units of 5 hides or multiples of 5 hides goes to show that we are not speaking of fixed or even approximate acreages and this applies not only to

2340-415: The third, who would go to war in their name. Those holding half-hides were responsible for readying one man for every group of six. This came about as a way of ensuring that the liege took to the field with a fully equipped and provisioned force. In early Anglo-Saxon England , the hide was used as the basis for assessing the amount of food rent (known as feorm ) due from a village or estate and it became

2392-426: The unit on which all public obligations were assessed, including in particular the maintenance and repair of bridges and fortifications and the provision of troops for manning the defences of a town or for the defence force known as the 'fyrd'. For instance, at one period, five hides were expected to provide one fully armed soldier in the king's service, and one man from every hide was to be liable to do garrison duty for

2444-410: Was a measure of 'the taxable worth of an area of land', but it had no fixed relationship to its area, the number of ploughteams working on it, or its population; nor was it limited to the arable land on an estate. According to Bailey, "It is a commonplace that the hide in 1086 had a very variable extent on the ground; the old concept of 120 acres cannot be sustained." Many details of the development of

2496-474: Was a way of dividing the tax assessment on the hide between several owners of parts of the land assessed. The owner of land assessed at 40 notional (or 'fiscal') acres in a village assessed at 10 hides and paying geld of 2 shillings per hide would be responsible for one-third ( 40 ⁄ 120 ) of 2 shillings—that is, 8 pence—though his land might be considerably more or less than 40 modern statute acres in extent. The surname Huber (also anglicized as Hoover )

2548-420: Was levied at a stated rate per hide (e.g. two shillings per hide). Subsequently the same system was used for general taxation and the geld was raised as required. The hide was a measure of value rather than a measurement of area, but the logic of its assessment is not easy to understand, especially as assessments were changed from time to time and not always consistently. By the end of the Anglo-Saxon period, it

2600-403: Was perceived as being too high or too low or for other reasons now unknown. The hides within each hundred were then divided between villages, estates or manors , usually in blocks or multiples of 5 hides, though this was not always maintained. Differences from the norm could result from estates being moved from one hundred to another, or from adjustments to the size of an estate or alterations in

2652-474: Was used only in Normandy (and neighbouring places outside its traditional borders), but its value varied greatly across Normandy, ranging from 3,632 to 9,725 square metres, with 8,172 square metres being the most frequent value. But inside the same pays of Normandy, for instance in pays de Caux , the farmers (still in the 20th century) made the difference between the grande acre (68 ares, 66 centiares) and

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2704-406: Was with the exemption of Land registration , which records the sale and possession of land, in 2010 HM Land Registry ended its exemption. The measure is still used to communicate with the public and informally (non-contract) by the farming and property industries. 1 international acre is equal to the following metric units: 1 United States survey acre is equal to: 1 acre (both variants)

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