n. | 1. | The act of levying or taking tithes; that which is taken as tithe; a tithe. |
2. | (O. Eng. Law) A number or company of ten householders who, dwelling near each other, were sureties or frankpledges to the king for the good behavior of each other; a decennary. |
TITHING, Eng. law. Formerly a district containing ten men with their families. In each tithing there was a tithing man whose duty it was to keep the peace, as a constable now is bound to do. St. Armand, in his Historical Essay on the Legislative Power of England, p. 70, expresses, an opinion that the tithing was composed not of ten common families, but of ten families of lords of a manor.