TITHING, (Tithinga, from the Sax. Theothunge, i. e. Decuriam), is in its first appointment the number or company of ten men with their families, held together in a society, all being bound for the peaceable behaviour of each other; and of these companies there was one chief person, who was called teothung-man, at this day tithing-man: but the old discipline of tithings is long since left off. In the Saxon times, for the better conservation of the peace, and more easy administration of justice, every hundred was divided into ten districts or tithings; and within every tithing, the tithing-men were to examine and determine all lesser causes between villages and neighbours; but to refer greater matters to the then superior courts, which had a jurisdiction over the whole hundred.