Forms: 1 wǽpenǽetæc (dat. -tace), wǽpentake, wapentac, 3 -tak, 4 wapne-, wepentake, 5 wapyntek, 5–7 wapentache (5 -tage, 7 weapontack, -tage), 6–7 wapentack, (8 -tac), 6–8 wappentake, (6 wapintake, 8 waking take), 4– wapentake; (5 wepyntale, -taille). [a. ON. vápnatak, f. vápna genit. pl. of vápn WEAPON + tak act of taking (related to taka to TAKE). The late OE. wǽpenʓetæc shows assimilation of form to native compounds like wǽpenʓewrixle exchange of blows.
The recorded senses of the word in ON. are: (1) a vote of consent expressed by waving or brandishing weapons; (2) a vote or resolution of a deliberative assembly; (3) in Iceland, the breaking up of the session of the Althingi, when the members resumed their weapons that had been laid aside during the sittings. In English there is no trace of these senses, and the development of the actual sense can only be explained conjecturally. It is noteworthy that ‘wapentakes,’ like ‘hundreds,’ often received their names from some natural or artificial object (e.g., a barrow or a tree) that afforded a suitable rallying-place for open-air meetings. Assuming that in England wapentake originally meant the act of signifying assent at a public assembly, it seems not improbable that the men of the district whose place of meeting was (e.g.) at Osgod’s Cross might be said to belong to ‘the wapentake of Osgod’s Cross (Osgoldcross)’: the use of the word to denote a territorial division would thus be sufficiently accounted for.]
A subdivision of certain English shires, corresponding to the ‘hundred’ (HUNDRED 5) of other counties.
The shires that have divisions so termed are Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Notts, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, and Leicestershire; in all which the Danish element in the population was large. In Derbyshire there is now only one wapentake (that of Wirksworth), the other divisions of the shire being termed ‘hundreds.’ In Lincolnshire most of the county divisions are ‘wapentakes,’ but a few are called ‘hundreds’ and ‘sokes.’ There are traces of the existence of the term in popular use in other counties, as Cheshire and Cumberland.
c. 1000. Laws of Edgar, IV. c. vi. (Lieberm.). & ælc mon mid heora ʓewitnysse bigcge & sylle ælc þara ceapa, þe he bigcge oððe sylle aþer oððe burʓe oððe on wæpenʓetace.
c. 1000. Laws of Ethelred, III. c. i. § 2 (Lieberm.). On wæpentake.
1086. Domesday Bk. (1783), I. 272. Derbyscire … Scarvedele Wapentac…. Hammenstan Wapent. Ibid., 290. Snotinghamscire…. Brocolvestov Wapent. Bernesedelay Wap. Ibid., 315. Evrvicscire…. Siraches Wapentac.
a. 1325. MS. Rawl. B. 520, lf. 46. On þusse manere sullen þe enquerours gon fram wapnetake to wapnet[ake].
1326. Rolls of Parlt., II. 10/1. Et qe nule Baillie, ne Hundred, ne Wapentake, ne soit lesse a plus haut ferme qe les auncienes fermes.
1338. R. Brunne, Chron. (1725), 145. Þe bisshop of Durham bouht Saberg, with þe wapentake.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 97. Wepentake and an hondred is al oon, for þe contray of an hondred townes were i-woned to ȝilde vppe wepene in þe comynge of þe lord.
c. 1400. Brut, I. 235. Kyng Edward [sc. Edw. II.] … by his lettres ordeynede, þat euery hundred & wapentache of Engeland [etc.].
1444. Rolls of Parlt., V. 110/1. That no Shirref lete to ferme … his Counte, ne noon of his Baillywykes, Hundreth’ ne Wapentakes.
1556[?]. in Pettus, Fodinæ Reg. (1670), 95. The custom of the Mines within the Wappentake of Wricksworth.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, 6. All the hundreds and wapentakes nine miles compasse, fetch the best of their viands and mangery from her market.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 90. There is in every shiere soe many ridinges, in everie ridinge soe many weapontackes.
1665. J. North, in Extr. S. P. rel. Friends, III. (1912), 234. To ympannell a Jury out of that weapontage out of such Townes, as are not within Doncaster liberty.
c. 1710. Celia Fiennes, Diary (1888), 183. Richmondshire has in it 5 waking takes as they call them.
1717. Gay, Ep. to Lowndes, 12. Great L—— his praise should swell the trump of fame And Rapes and Wapentakes resound his name.
1769. Ann. Reg., 66/2. One of the high constables of Osgoldcross was indicted for extorting … 1250l. from twenty-five townships belonging to his wapentake.
1797. Brydges, Homer Trav., I. 119. As for these various ragged packs Of rogues from different wapentakes.
1836. Penny Cycl., V. 238. The petty sessions for the wapentakes of Kirton and Skirbeck are held every Wednesday.
1846. M’Culloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), I. 161. Nottinghamshire is divided into 6 wapentakes or hundreds.
1914. Victoria Hist. County York, I. 36. The Wapentake of Gilling West containing the parishes of [etc.]…. This wapentake was held by the successive lords of Richmondshire, which it followed in descent.
b. The judicial court of such a subdivision.
14[?]. Customs of Malton, in Engl. Misc. (Surtees), 59. Yffe any man … be sommonyd … to the wapyntak.
1611. Speed, Theat. Gt. Brit., I. xxx. § 4. 57. Aboue this, and held 12 times a yeare, was our Hundred or Wapentake.
1676. Lond. Gaz., No. 1095/4. If any person or persons shall apprehend … the said Robbers, and give notice thereof to the Wapentack of Aslaccoe in the County of Lincoln … they shall have 50l. reward.
1809. Bawdwen, Domesday Bk., York, etc., 473. This belonged to St. Benedict of Ramsey, according to the testimony of the jurors of the wapentake [L. testimonium hominum de Wapentac].
1898. B. Kirkby, Lakeland Wds., s.v., ‘If he doesn’t pay up Ah’ll set t’ wapen-tack on tull him.’ This officer is reported to have existed in the town of Kendal till as late as 1836.
c. attrib.: wapentake court, fine.
1543. Fountains Abbey (Surtees), I. 407. Paid to the exchetor … for Wapin take fyne callyd castle worke, iijs. iiijd.
1658. Hubberthorn, Sufferings for Tythes, 13. William Iackson for tythes of ten shillings value, had sixteen shillings taken by a judgment in the Weapontage-Court.
1874. Stubbs, Const. Hist., v. § 46. This court, the hundred-gemot or wapentake court, was held every month.
