Frank Pledge

Frank Pledge, called also Frithborh and Tenmannetale (in the north), an association of 10 men, under the headship of a Capital Pledge, who were to be securities for each other to the law. If unable to produce any one of their number when duly called upon, they were liable to make good any injury he had done, provided they were unable to disprove their complicity. The principle was probably to substitute an artificial tie for the natural one of the family, which had become loosened. Frank-pledge is first described in the so-called laws of Edward the Confessor; but it grew up naturally from the law of AEthelstan, reenacted by Edgar and Knut, that every man should have a security for him.