Obs. [ad. Ger. centgraf, zentgraf, f. MHG. zente, a district originally of 100 hamlets, ad. late L. centa, It. cinta, in same sense: see Du Cange. The Centgraf was the president of the Centgerichte, which administered the criminal law in these districts.] Used by Selden as translation of OE. hundredes ealdor the presiding officer of the court of the hundred; also, to render Ger. Centgraf, Zentgraf.
1649. Selden, Laws Eng., I. xxv. He was (per eminentiam), called the Centgrave or Lord of the Hundred.
1762. trans. Busching’s Syst. Geog., V. 474. Over which is … a Centgrave whose business it is to look to the criminal jurisdiction.
