The Long Hundred in Medieval and Early Modern Scotland Julian Goodare*
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Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 123 (1993), 395-418 The long hundred in medieval and early modern Scotland Julian Goodare* ABSTRACT The 'long hundred' of 6 score was the norm in Scotland for non-monetary sums from the early middle middle17thagesthe the to of century. existedIt together with a 'long thousand': where c = 120, m = 1200. It originated with the Germanic practice of counting in tens up to 120 ('twelvety'), that amount being roman numeral c; but it later came to be regarded as 6 score, occasionally as 10 dozen. It was not part of a 'duodecimal system', rather of a mixed-base system in which decimals predominated. foundItis accountsin produceof variousof kinds,all used not for though was it commodities; wool, in particular, was reckoned by the short hundred until the early 16th century. appendixAn listscommoditiesthe longwhichof for use (and/or short) hundredshas been identified between 1200 1650.and Calculations thisin period were counting-board,the carriedon out medievalthe version of the abacus. It was easy to use this for non-decimal bases, and it is shown by diagrams how the long hundred could have been handled. The long hundred disappeared when counting-boardthe replacedwas paperby calculation using arabic numerals. INTRODUCTION During an earthquake in northern Scotland in 1597, 'a man in St Johnstoun laying compts with his compters, the compts lappe off the boord'.1 The purpose of this article is to investigat doings e whawa e , h tfocusin characteristie on n go c aspec earlf o t y accountine th g- long hundred. s lonha g t I been recognized thar non-monetarfo t y sum medievan i s earld an ly modern accounts romae th , n numeral 'c' usually (thoug t invariablyhno t 120) bu represent . 0 10 t no s Peter Gouldesbrough has demonstrated this with admirable succinctness in connection with the Exchequer Rolls f Scotland.o s alsha o e drawH 2 n attentio unfortunate th o nt e fact thae th t editors of the volumes covering the years 1379 to 1600 converted roman numerals to arabic taking 'c' erroneousl s 100.ya 3shoo t Wha s wi o hopI mortd lone o et eth gfull w hundreho y d originated ,s use calculationw whawa dho t i ford t an ,auditd an s s were actually carriet ou d wit . Finallhit yshalI l demises looit t ka . The long hundred was part of a system which also included a long thousand. Where 'c' meant 120, 'm' meant 1200 illustrato T . taky ecomptroller'e themth ema e w , s accountr fo s Departmen* f Scottiso t h History, Universit f Edinburgyo h | SOCIET 6 39 ANTIQUARIEF YO SCOTLANDF SO , 1993 1600-1, which give a figure for the charge of poultry, a slightly smaller figure for the discharge e 'reststh balancer d o ' an , roman i , n numeral followss sa givI . e arabic figuresr fo , comparison, beside them:4 Charge iim iic liiii 2694 Discharge im ixc vxx v 2385 Rests iic Ixix 309 A further example, the addition of the charge of capons in the following year, will underline the point:5 vc xlii 642 ic xlii 162 xvi 16 Iv 55 ic Ixx 190 ic xx 140 Total i mv 1205 Evidence thae lonth t g hundre d lonan dg thousand were usage f speecho s t merelno , y peculiarities in the notation of roman numerals, comes from the Privy Council records of 1614. The customer depute of Leith held a licence to export 'three thowsand stane weght' of wool, and had exported 'ane thowsand eyght hundreth and three stanes' at the point when an order bannin l exporgal f woo o s issuedt wa l ; there 'resti stransportie b yit o t t thowsane an t d ane hundreth fyvescoir xvii stanes'. arithmetie Th c her corrects ei . 6 DEVELOPMENE TH LONE TH GF THUNDREO D e mosTh t detailed accoun e lonth gf o thundre e medievath n di lStevenson H period W y b , , sees its genesis in a specific habit of Germanic cultures, firstly, to count in decades (20 was ) andon , o s secondly d (fo2 1 an r, d regaro thit 10 ,an sx 1 1 d3 s wa 0 essentiall3 , 10 x y2 purpose thid an s, purpose only s additionaa ) l primary numbers. Hund- prefia s a Anglon i x - Saxon meant 'decade', added to the decades from 70 (hund-seofontig) onwards, so that the firse th en tf do decada l sequence went hund-eahtatig x 10 8 , ( 'eighty') , hund-nlgontigx 9 ( 10, 'ninety'), hund-teontig (10 x 10, 'tenty'), hund-endlefontig (11 x 10, 'eleventy') and finally hund-twelftig , 'twelvety')10 x 2 (1 . This last number coul e equatedb d with hund (Latin centum), whic noua s ha n meant 'hundred'. Sinc shore eth t hundred never disappeared, we find hund-twelftig hund-twentigd an ('a hundre twenty'd an d ) both meaning whae w t would call 120, while hund-teontig was also sometimes equated with centum. For higher numbers lone th , g hundre turmultiplies n di nwa primariey db only0 s1 froo ,t producinm1 ga 'thousand' of 1200.7 This system was never used for money or dates, and thus always had to coexist with a stricter decimal system of counting. e Anglo-SaxoTh n e lonorigith gf o nhundre d might e confirmeseeb o me t th y b d appearanc Domesdan ei y followine Boo th s figures it f ko f o ge : gloson 'hi n eo s numerus Anglice computatur t centues d o cxx'.i ,m pr 8 However RounH J , d pointe t thadou t this GOODARE: THE LONG HUNDRED IN SCOTLAND | 397 passage related to Lincoln, and adduced other evidence to suggest that this long hundred existed in parallel with (though was not identical to) a 'six-carucate unit' in the Danelaw, while the rest of England was assessed in Domesday on a system of five hides: 'we may fairly hold the Anglicus numerus, or long hundred, to have specially prevailed in the "Danish" districts, which were also assessed shale w , twelve'.d l findan x sumn i si , f 9so The development of the long hundred in England is of interest to us in that it may provide clues as to when and how it arrived in Scotland. If it was favoured by the Danes and reached Scotland through them, this would imply a terminus a quo of the ninth century - and knoe w we earl th tha yn i t 10th century ther mucs ewa h interaction betwee e kingdonth f mo the Scots and the Viking kingdom of York. If, however, Danish influence were discounted, 0 we might be allowed - or obliged - to look 1 further back. Since there seems to have been little southern influence on the Pictish or Scottish lands in the eighth century, we might have to consider the impact of the Anglian expansion that took place in the century or so before the battle of Nechtansmere in 685." But since the Scottish long hundred was, as we shall see, primarily a unit of reckoning of traded commodities, it would be unwise to push its origins r bacfa ko withouto t direct evidence relatin tradeo gt s enoug i t I . concludo ht a s e thawa t i t Germanic method of reckoning which reached Scotland from the south. It has, however, been suggested thae lonth t g hundre n Scotlandi havy dma e derived from Celtic systems of land assessment. In an impressive study of land assessments in medieval Scotland, Alexis Easso s arguenha d convincingl lane y th thad l unital t s outside eth south-east - particularly the western ounceland and the north-eastern davach - originated in the 20-'house' unit of the Scots of Dalriada. She cites examples of groups of six davachs and of six ouncelands, and an example of a group of 120 'houses' in Dalriada, and continues: e significancTh twente th f o ey hous systee unith n f i assessmentm o kingdoe th n i t f Dalriadmo a cannot be denied and the appearance of the 120 house grouping (six times the twenty houses) is a strong indication thaframewore th t organisatioe th r fo ke late th rf no davac ouncelandd han s into larger territorial units was already present in the seventh century in Dalriada. Was this framework base duodecimaa n do l syste f countingmo precursoe th , f wharo t later became knowlone th gs na hundred (12 x 10 or 120)?12 The answer, regretfully, must be no. It is not a long hundred, or indeed a hundred of any kind, unless it is called a hundred. The '120 house grouping' that Dr Easson cites is from a list in the seventh-century Senchus Per nAlban of the numbers of tech (houses) held by branches of the Cenel nOengusa, the Islay kindred of the kingdom of Dalriada: 'Odeich xx tech Freg cxx tech Cladrois Ix tech Rois deorand xxx tech airdhes xxx tech loich rois xxx tech Aith ceniun si a n cassii l x oengusxx l tech'. x Senchuse a xx th lis e n 1i t Th 3 f houseo s held by the Cenel Loairn, the Lorn kindred, contains a number of 20-house groupings but none of 120; a single example of 'cxx tech' is not much on which to construct a general theory, however tentative t howeveBu . r many case f 'cxxo sfounde w ' ' woul'c , d stil e 100b l t i ; lona woule gb t hundreddno .