When we turn to the social divisions we find in Domesday and other documents classes of society in these districts bearing purely Norse names, _dreng_, _karl_, _karlman_, _bonde_, _thrall_, _lysing_, _hold_; in the system of taxation we have an assessment by _carucates_ and not by hides and _virgates_, and the duodecimal rather than the decimal system of reckoning.
The highly developed Scandinavian legal system has also left abundant traces in this district. We may mention specially the institution of the "lawmen," whom we find as a judicial body in several of the towns in or near the Danelagh. They are found at Cambridge, Stamford, Lincoln, York and Chester. There can be no doubt that these "lawmen," who can be shown to form a close parallel to and indeed the ultimate source of our jury, were of Scandinavian origin. Many other legal terms can be definitely traced to Scandinavian sources, and they are first found in use in the district of the Danelagh.
The whole of the place nomenclature of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Northern Northamptonshire is Scandinavian rather than native English, and in the remaining districts of the Danelagh a goodly proportion of Danish place-names may be found. Their influence is also evident in the dialects spoken in these districts to the present day. It is probable that until the end of the 10th century Scandinavian dialects were almost the sole language spoken in the district of the Danelagh, and when English triumphed, after an intermediate bilingual state, large numbers of words were adopted from the earlier Scandinavian speech.
See _The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, edited by Earle and Plummer (Oxford, 1892-1899); J. C. H. R. Steenstrup, _Normannerne_ (4 vols., 1876-1882); and A. Bugge, _Vikingerne_ (2 vols.). (A. Mw.)
DANGERFIELD, THOMAS (c. 1650-1685), English conspirator, was born about 1650 at Waltham, Essex, the son of a farmer. He began his career by robbing his father, and, after a rambling life, took to coining false money, for which offence and others he was many times imprisoned. False to everyone, he first tried to involve the duke of Monmouth and others by concocting information about a Presbyterian plot against the throne, and this having been proved a lie, he pretended to have discovered a Catholic plot against Charles II. This was known as the "Meal-tub Plot," from the place where the incriminating documents were hidden at his suggestion, and found by the king's officers by his information. Mrs Elizabeth Cellier,--in whose house the tub was,--almoner to the countess of Powis, who had befriended Dangerfield when he posed as a Catholic, was, with her patroness, actually tried for high treason and acquitted (1680). Dangerfield, when examined at the bar of the House of Commons, made other charges against prominent Papists, and attempted to defend his character by publishing, among other pamphlets, _Dangerfield's Narrative_. This led to his trial for libel, and on the 29th of June 1685 he received sentence to stand in the pillory on two consecutive days, be whipped from Aldgate to Newgate, and two days later from Newgate to Tyburn. On his way back he was struck in the eye with a cane by a barrister, Robert Francis, and died shortly afterwards from the blow. The barrister was, tried and executed for the murder.