The hundred was a colonial administrative unit based on its English counterpart: an area occupied by one hundred families and served by local officials. In Virginia, the hundred began as a settlement of one hundred families but soon became a strictly territorial unit for judicial, military, and political purposes. In Maryland, hundreds were territorial units for elections, public levies, and preservation of the peace. In Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, the establishment of larger administrative units such as boroughs and counties diminished the function of hundreds, although they remained important subdivisions and continued to exist in many places in the early 2000s.
Bibliography
Carr, Lois Green, Philip D. Morgan, and Jean B. Russo, eds. Colonial Chesapeake Society. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988.


