3/11/2020 Virgate - Wikipedia

Virgate
The virgate, yardland, or yard of
land (Latin: virgāta [terrae]) was an
English unit of land. Primarily a
measure of tax assessment rather than
area, the virgate was usually (but not
always) reckoned as 1⁄4 hide and
notionally (but seldom exactly) equal to
30 acres. It was equivalent to two of the
Danelaw's oxgangs.

Name
The name derives from the Old English
gyrd landes ("yard of land"),[1] from
"yard"'s former meaning as a
measuring stick employed in reckoning
acres (cf. rod). The word is Farm-derived units of measurement:
etymologically unrelated to the yard of
land around a dwelling.[2] "Virgate" is a 1. The rod is a historical unit of length equal to 51⁄2
much later retronym, anglicizing the yards. It may have originated from the typical length
yardland's latinized form virgāta after of a mediaeval ox-goad. There are 4 rods in one
the advent of the yard rendered the chain.
original name ambiguous.[3]
2. The furlong (meaning furrow length) was the
distance a team of oxen could plough without
History resting. This was standardised to be exactly 40 rods
or 10 chains.
The virgate was reckoned as the
amount of land that a team of two oxen 3. An acre was the amount of land tillable by one man
could plough in a single annual season. behind one ox in one day. Traditional acres were
It was equivalent to a quarter of a hide, long and narrow due to the difficulty in turning the
so was nominally thirty acres.[4] In plough and the value of river front access.
some parts of England, it was divided 4. An oxgang was the amount of land tillable by one ox
into four nooks (Middle English: noke;
in a ploughing season. This could vary from village
Medieval Latin: noca).[5] Nooks were
occasionally further divided into a to village, but was typically around 15 acres.
farundel (Middle English: ferthendel; 5. A virgate was the amount of land tillable by two oxen
Old English: fēorþan dǣl, "fourth deal, in a ploughing season.
fourth share").[6]
6. A carucate was the amount of land tillable by a team
The Danelaw equivalent of a virgate of eight oxen in a ploughing season. This was equal
was two oxgangs or ‘bovates’.[7] These to 8 oxgangs or 4 virgates.
were considered to represent the
amount of land that could be worked in
a single annual season by a single ox and therefore equated to half a virgate. As such, the oxgang
represented a parallel division of the carucate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgate 1/2
3/11/2020 Virgate - Wikipedia

References
1. Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "yardland, n.". Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1921.
2. Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "yard, n.2". Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1921.
3. Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "virgate, n.". Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1917.
4. D. Hey ed., Oxford Companion to Local and Family History (Oxford University Press, Oxford,
1996), 476.
5. "Noca - nook (measure of land)" R. W. Latham, Revised Medieval Latin Word-list (Oxford
University Press, London: for British Academy 1965), 312.
6. Bosworth, Joseph; T. Northcote Toller (1882). An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=oXlii1KgDngC). Oxford University Press. p. 281.
7. Stephen Friar, Batsford Companion to Local History (Batsford, London 1991), 270.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Virgate&oldid=978018438"

This page was last edited on 12 September 2020, at 11:22 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgate 2/2