(Tithinga, from the Saxon Theothunge, i.e. Decuria), a number or company of ten men, with their families, knit together in a kind of society, and all bound to the king for the peaceable behaviour of each other. Anciently, no man was suffered to abide in England above forty days, unless he were enrolled in some tithing. One of the principal inhabitants of the tithing was annually appointed to preside over the rest, being called the *tithe-man*, the head-borough, and in some countries the borseholder, or borough's calder, being supposed the discreetest man in the borough, town, or tithing. The distribution of England into tithings and hundreds is ascribed to King Alfred.