[Late OE. lǽđ str. neut., corresponding to ON. láđ (poet.) landed possession, land:—OTeut. *lǣþom; according to some scholars cogn. w. -lǣđ- in Goth. un-lēds poor (? lit. without landed possessions), OE. un-lǽd(e wretched.
The form lathe (recorded from 14th c.) would, if it represented a pronunciation handed down by oral tradition, imply that the OE. word had a short vowel, and connection with lađian, to summon, would then be possible. Probably, however, the word had little oral currency, so that its form may have been influenced by the spelling of early documents. The identity of the word with ON. láđ (which involves the conclusion that the OE. form was lǽđ) is rendered almost certain by the following facts. (1) The OE. word is in one instance recorded in the sense of the ON. word, viz., in the legal formula ‘ne ʓyrne ic þínes ne lǽdes ne landes ne sace ne sócne’ (Schmid, Gesetze der Angelsachsen, app. xi), where it has the same alliterative association as in the frequent ON. phrase ‘land ok lǽð.’ (2) This alliterative association recurs in our first quotation, where the word has its specific Kentish application. (3) Our second quotation implies that ‘the lathe of Aylesford’ was the territory that was under a jurisdiction attached to the manor of Aylesford, so that the development of the special Kentish use from the general sense of ‘landed possession’ presents no difficulty.
The possibility is not excluded that the Kentish term may represent a coalescence of the original OE. lǽđ, territory, with other words of similar form: cf. ON. leiđ fem. a court or judicial assembly, and OE. -lǽđ or *lǽđe in mótlǽđu pl., attendances at a ‘moot’ or assembly (? related to ON. líđa, OE. líđan, to go); also mod. Da. lægd ‘division of a parish for military purposes’ (f. root of LIE, LAY vbs.).
The latinized leidegrevei (see b) may, as is commonly assumed, represent an OE. *lǽđʓeréfan ‘lathe-reeves’; but the text is of little authority.]
One of the administrative districts (now five in number) into which Kent is divided, each comprising several hundreds.
a. 1100[?]. Charter, in Birch, Cart. Sax., III. 162. Sco duʓuđ folces on westan Cænt, þær þæt land and þæt læđ to liđ.
c. 1120. Rochester Bridge-bote Charter, ibid. 659. Of æʓlesforda & of ellan þam læþe þe þær to liþ. [Latin text: De Æilesforda et de toto illo lesto quod ad illud manerium pertinet. (See LAST sb.5)]
c. 1150. in Laws of Edw. Conf., c. 31 (interpolation) in Schmid, Gesetze, 508 note 5, In quibusdam vero provinciis Anglice vocantur leđ [v.r. vocabatur led], quod isti dicunt tithinge [v.r. trihinge].
1392–3. Rolls Parlt., III. 305/1. Certains Wapentakes, Hundredes, Rapes, Lathes, Baillies … & Villes, queux furent grant parcelle del Ferme des corps des Countees.
1545. Act 37 Hen. VIII., c. 25 § 9. In every such Shire Riding Lathe Wapentake Rape Citie Towne Borough Isle.
1570–6. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), 3. The whole Shyre hath long been divided into five partes communly called Lathes.
1670. Blount, Law Dict., Lathe or Leth,… is a great part of a County, sometimes containing three or more Hundreds or Wapentakes; as it is used in Kent and Sussex.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. 116. In some counties there is an intermediate division between the shire and the hundreds, as lathes in Kent, and rapes in Sussex.
1832. Act 2 & 3 Will. IV., c. 64 § 9. Such Eastern Division shall include the whole of the respective lathes of St. Augustine and Shepway.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. v. 100. In Kent … the hundreds are arranged in Lathes or Lests.
b. Comb.: † lathe reeve, the official charged with the administration of a lathe; † lathe silver (see quot. 1778).
c. 1200. London interpolation, in Leges Hen. I., c. 7 § 2 (MS. c. 1310), in Schmid, Gesetze, 440 note 4, Leidegrevei, vicarii.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. 116. These had … their lathe-reeves and rape-reeves, acting in subordination to the shire-reeve.
1778. Hasted, Kent, I. 124. The chief-rent payable to the crown, called lath or tythe silver,… was 8s. as was returned by the survey taken in 1650.
