A hundred is an old English subdivision of a county, basically a tract of land large enough to provide a hundred men for the king’s wars, or in the American colonies, militiamen. The term was used in many colonies, but it survived in America only in Delaware, probably because its counties were established so early, by 1680, that little reorganization was needed. In New England, town replaced hundred, while Pennsylvania and New Jersey adopted township, and most states today are divided into counties and then into units such as ward, township, parish, precinct, or district. In Delaware, the origin is linked to a 1682 letter from William Penn, newly appointed Lord Proprietor of the province of Pennsylvania and the counties on the Delaware, directing that settlements be divided into sections of 100 families, each averaging about ten members including servants. The first official-record use of Hundred in the Delaware colony dates to 1687 in a reference to “a list of taxables of north side of Duck Creek Hundred.” Whatever its exact origin or intended significance, Delaware is the only state in the United States, and possibly in the world, where hundreds still exist, while other states such as Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia abandoned the division, with Maryland ending its use by 1825.