Danish Herred

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A herred is a minor jurisdictional district in Denmark. The herred has existed in Denmark since at least 1232 and usually comprises multiple parishes. Administratively it is equivalent to the English "Hundred" and originally referred to a region responsible to provide one hundred men for military service.

Several administrative responsibilities were assigned to herreds including church inspections, notary services, fire protection, promulgating announcements for the king, probates, prosecuting minor felonies, providing local law enforcement, keeping records of epidemics, military conscription (levying rolls), etc. The district sheriff (herredsfoged) was the main authority in the district and the local representative of the king. Cities had a separate jurisdictional authority.

A search of The National Archives of Denmark's online catalog, Daisy, using the term "Herred" as archive creator (arkivskaber) will return a list of herreds in Denmark and the records they created.

Records created by the herred include civil registration, court, passport, guardianship, land and property, military, notarial, probate, taxation, histories of the district, and some censuses, especially for Southern Jylland.

Herreds can contain smaller jurisdictions called birker.