pseudo-arch. [a. Sw. fjerding:—ON. fjórðungr: see FARTHING.
Introduced from a Swedish writer by Blackstone in his disquisitions on Teutonic legal antiquities, and by some later writers mistaken for a term of early Eng. law.]
An alleged name for a quarter of a hundred or of a shire. Also attrib. in fierding-court.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. 34. Bounded the jurisdiction of the antient Gothic courts in their lowest instance, or fierding-courts.
1872. E. W. Robertson, Historical Essays, 120 note. A glimpse is obtained of the district between the Hundred and the greater Shire—the Fierding or Quarter.
1889. Century Dict., Fierding-court, one of an early class of English courts, so called because [etc.].
