Hobbit (unit)
Encyclopedia
The hobbit is a unit of volume or weight formerly used in Wales
for trade in grain and other staples. It was equal to four peck
s or two and a half bushel
s, but was also often used as a unit of weight, which varied depending on the material being measured. The hobbit remained in customary use in markets in northern Wales after Parliament standardized the Winchester
bushel as the unit of measure for grain, after which courts gave inconsistent rulings as to its legal status.
s, but in practice it was often used as a unit of weight for specific goods. According to George Richard Everitt, Inspector of Corn Returns for Denbigh
in northern Wales
, when examined by the House of Commons in 1888, grains were sold by the hobbit, measured by weight. A hobbit of oats
weighed 105 pound
s, a hobbit of barley
147 pounds, and a hobbit of wheat
168 pounds. The figures in hobbits were then converted to standard imperial bushels for official reporting.
In addition to grains, there was also a hobbit of bean
s at 180 pounds, and in Flintshire
, a 200-pound hobbit of old potatoes, or
210 pounds of new potatoes.
Around 1600, Welsh farmland was sometimes denominated by its productive capacity or measure of seedness instead of its physical area, so that in at least one case a plot was registered as
"a hobbett of land," that is, large enough to grow one hobbit of grain per year.
Already in 1863, the hobbit was used as an example of the "customary confusion in our British weights and measures." An anonymous contributor to Charles Dickens
's journal All the Year Round
, arguing in favor of the decimal metric system
,
noted that
. The hobbit's mixed use as a unit of both volume and of weight complicated the issue, as laws applied differently to the two cases. Courts sometimes nullified grain contracts denominated in hobbits, and sometimes upheld them, according to varying customs in precisely how hobbits were defined and measured.
In 1825, the Exchequer of Pleas
heard the case of Tyson v. Thomas, regarding an unfulfilled 1823 contract for the delivery of 20 hobbits of barley in Llanrwst
, at 10 shilling
s each. The price of barley subsequently increased, and the seller did not make delivery. The buyer sued, and the defendant argued that the contract was illegal because it was not based on the standard Winchester bushel. According to testimony, the Llanrwst market used a half-hobbit measure of two 21-quart
peck
s, but in practice a hobbit could vary from 80 to 84 quarts. The court agreed with the seller, finding that the hobbit was impermissible because it was not a fixed integer multiple of the bushel.
The contract was therefore void. A similar argument was raised before the Exchequer of Pleas in Owens v. Denton, concerning a sale of malt
, but the court held that the question of measures had no effect on the case because the account had
already been settled.
The 1852 case Hughes v. Humphreys concerned a contract for the sale of 100 hobbits of wheat at 18 shillings per hobbit. Following custom, the grain was actually delivered in sacks weighed out to 252 pounds each, and converted to 168-pound hobbits. The seller sued to obtain payment from the buyer, who argued that the contract was unenforceable because the hobbit was a non-standard and illegal measure of volume, contrary to Parliamentary establishment of the Winchester bushel for trade in grain. The magistrate at the local assizes
in Flintshire
, J. Williams, found for the defendant, voiding the contract. This ruling was reversed by the Court of Queen's Bench, which reasoned that the in distinction to the Tyson case, the hobbit in this instance was used as a measure of weight, not volume, and was defined as a fixed multiple of the pound. Because the sale of grain in pounds was allowed, the contract was deemed valid and was enforced.
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
for trade in grain and other staples. It was equal to four peck
Peck
A peck is an imperial and U.S. customary unit of dry volume, equivalent to 2 gallons or 8 dry quarts or 16 dry pints. Two pecks make a kenning , and four pecks make a bushel....
s or two and a half bushel
Bushel
A bushel is an imperial and U.S. customary unit of dry volume, equivalent in each of these systems to 4 pecks or 8 gallons. It is used for volumes of dry commodities , most often in agriculture...
s, but was also often used as a unit of weight, which varied depending on the material being measured. The hobbit remained in customary use in markets in northern Wales after Parliament standardized the Winchester
Winchester measure
Winchester measure is a set of legal standards of volume defined in the city of Winchester, England during the tenth century and in use, with some modifications, until the present day.-National standard:...
bushel as the unit of measure for grain, after which courts gave inconsistent rulings as to its legal status.
Usage
The hobbit was defined as a measure of volume, two and a half imperial bushelBushel
A bushel is an imperial and U.S. customary unit of dry volume, equivalent in each of these systems to 4 pecks or 8 gallons. It is used for volumes of dry commodities , most often in agriculture...
s, but in practice it was often used as a unit of weight for specific goods. According to George Richard Everitt, Inspector of Corn Returns for Denbigh
Denbigh
Denbigh is a market town and community in Denbighshire, Wales. Before 1888, it was the county town of Denbighshire. Denbigh lies 8 miles to the north west of Ruthin and to the south of St Asaph. It is about 13 miles from the seaside resort of Rhyl. The town grew around the glove-making industry...
in northern Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, when examined by the House of Commons in 1888, grains were sold by the hobbit, measured by weight. A hobbit of oats
OATS
OATS - Open Source Assistive Technology Software - is a source code repository or "forge" for assistive technology software. It was launched in 2006 with the goal to provide a one-stop “shop” for end users, clinicians and open-source developers to promote and develop open source assistive...
weighed 105 pound
Pound (mass)
The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the Imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...
s, a hobbit of barley
Barley
Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...
147 pounds, and a hobbit of wheat
Wheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
168 pounds. The figures in hobbits were then converted to standard imperial bushels for official reporting.
In addition to grains, there was also a hobbit of bean
Bean
Bean is a common name for large plant seeds of several genera of the family Fabaceae used for human food or animal feed....
s at 180 pounds, and in Flintshire
Flintshire
Flintshire is a county in north-east Wales. It borders Denbighshire, Wrexham and the English county of Cheshire. It is named after the historic county of Flintshire, which had notably different borders...
, a 200-pound hobbit of old potatoes, or
210 pounds of new potatoes.
Around 1600, Welsh farmland was sometimes denominated by its productive capacity or measure of seedness instead of its physical area, so that in at least one case a plot was registered as
"a hobbett of land," that is, large enough to grow one hobbit of grain per year.
Already in 1863, the hobbit was used as an example of the "customary confusion in our British weights and measures." An anonymous contributor to Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
's journal All the Year Round
All the Year Round
All the Year Round was a Victorian periodical, being a British weekly literary magazine founded and owned by Charles Dickens, published between 1859 and 1895 throughout the United Kingdom. Edited by Dickens, it was the direct successor to his previous publication Household Words, abandoned due to...
, arguing in favor of the decimal metric system
Metric system
The metric system is an international decimalised system of measurement. France was first to adopt a metric system, in 1799, and a metric system is now the official system of measurement, used in almost every country in the world...
,
noted that
If [I buy wheat] at WrexhamWrexhamWrexham is a town in Wales. It is the administrative centre of the wider Wrexham County Borough, and the largest town in North Wales, located in the east of the region. It is situated between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley close to the border with Cheshire, England...
, [I must order] by the hobbet of one hundred and sixty eight [pounds]. But, even if I do happen to know what a hobbet of wheat means at Wrexham, that knowledge good for Flint is not good for Caernarvonshire. A hobbet of wheat at PwlheliPwllheliPwllheli is a community and the main market town of the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd, north-western Wales. It has a population of 3,861, of which a large proportion, 81 per cent, are Welsh speaking. Pwllheli is the place where Plaid Cymru was founded. It is the birthplace of Albert Evans-Jones -...
contains eighty-four pounds more than a hobbet at Wrexham; and a hobbet of oats is something altogether different; and a hobbet of barley is something altogether different again.
Legal issues
There was some dispute about the legality of the hobbit as a non-standard measure in commerce after Parliament established the Winchester measureWinchester measure
Winchester measure is a set of legal standards of volume defined in the city of Winchester, England during the tenth century and in use, with some modifications, until the present day.-National standard:...
. The hobbit's mixed use as a unit of both volume and of weight complicated the issue, as laws applied differently to the two cases. Courts sometimes nullified grain contracts denominated in hobbits, and sometimes upheld them, according to varying customs in precisely how hobbits were defined and measured.
In 1825, the Exchequer of Pleas
Exchequer of pleas
The Exchequer of Pleas or Court of Exchequer was a court that followed equity, a set of legal principles based on natural law, and common law, in England and Wales. Originally part of the curia regis, or King's Council, the Exchequer of Pleas split from the curia during the 1190s, to sit as an...
heard the case of Tyson v. Thomas, regarding an unfulfilled 1823 contract for the delivery of 20 hobbits of barley in Llanrwst
Llanrwst
Llanrwst is a small town and community on the A470 road and the River Conwy in Conwy County Borough, Wales. It takes its name from the 5th century to 6th century Saint Grwst, and the original parish church in Cae Llan was replaced by the 12th-century church....
, at 10 shilling
Shilling (United Kingdom)
The British shilling is an historic British coin from the eras of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the later United Kingdom; also adopted as a Scot denomination upon the 1707 Treaty of Union....
s each. The price of barley subsequently increased, and the seller did not make delivery. The buyer sued, and the defendant argued that the contract was illegal because it was not based on the standard Winchester bushel. According to testimony, the Llanrwst market used a half-hobbit measure of two 21-quart
Quart
The quart is a unit of volume equal to a quarter of a gallon, two pints, or four cups. Since gallons of various sizes have historically been in use, quarts of various sizes have also existed; see gallon for further discussion. Three of these kinds of quarts remain in current use, all approximately...
peck
Peck
A peck is an imperial and U.S. customary unit of dry volume, equivalent to 2 gallons or 8 dry quarts or 16 dry pints. Two pecks make a kenning , and four pecks make a bushel....
s, but in practice a hobbit could vary from 80 to 84 quarts. The court agreed with the seller, finding that the hobbit was impermissible because it was not a fixed integer multiple of the bushel.
The contract was therefore void. A similar argument was raised before the Exchequer of Pleas in Owens v. Denton, concerning a sale of malt
Malt
Malt is germinated cereal grains that have been dried in a process known as "malting". The grains are made to germinate by soaking in water, and are then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air...
, but the court held that the question of measures had no effect on the case because the account had
already been settled.
The 1852 case Hughes v. Humphreys concerned a contract for the sale of 100 hobbits of wheat at 18 shillings per hobbit. Following custom, the grain was actually delivered in sacks weighed out to 252 pounds each, and converted to 168-pound hobbits. The seller sued to obtain payment from the buyer, who argued that the contract was unenforceable because the hobbit was a non-standard and illegal measure of volume, contrary to Parliamentary establishment of the Winchester bushel for trade in grain. The magistrate at the local assizes
Assizes
Assize or Assizes may refer to:Assize or Assizes may refer to:Assize or Assizes may refer to::;in common law countries :::*assizes , an obsolete judicial inquest...
in Flintshire
Flintshire
Flintshire is a county in north-east Wales. It borders Denbighshire, Wrexham and the English county of Cheshire. It is named after the historic county of Flintshire, which had notably different borders...
, J. Williams, found for the defendant, voiding the contract. This ruling was reversed by the Court of Queen's Bench, which reasoned that the in distinction to the Tyson case, the hobbit in this instance was used as a measure of weight, not volume, and was defined as a fixed multiple of the pound. Because the sale of grain in pounds was allowed, the contract was deemed valid and was enforced.