This is a list of hundreds in the county of Dorset, England. Between the Anglo-Saxon period and the Local Government Act (1888), the county of Dorset was divided into hundreds and boroughs (and from the mediaeval period, liberties as well). The Local Government Act (1888) replaced the hundreds and liberties with urban and rural districts, based on the sanitary districts of the Poor Law Unions which existed in parallel with the hundreds/liberties from 1834.
While numerous minor changes took place during that period, the general pattern remained stable. The subdivisions below within hundreds and liberties are the old civil parishes, into which the tithings (the original sub-divisions of the hundreds) came to be fitted. (Civil parish is used here in the sense of an "area for which a poor rate is or can be assessed", a unit which has thus been in existence de facto from the establishment of the Elizabethan Poor Law; the term itself dates from mid 19th century legislation such as the Poor Law Amendment Act 1866.) The following are the units existing immediately prior to the Act of 1834, with some additional changes noted up to the reforms of the Local Government Act 1894 and their immediate aftermath. Liberties and Boroughs are listed for completeness.
Prior to the 1834 Act, the hundreds were grouped, mostly for taxation purposes, by divisions, which were rearranged by local Act of Parliament in 1830. See List of divisions in Dorset.
Wimborne Minster (a borough pre-Conquest)
(Holt and Pamphill were created in 1894 from Wimborne Minster, and Colehill in 1896 from Holt)
Chardstock (transferred to Devon 1896)
Toller Porcorum (part)
Wambrook (transferred to Somerset 1895)
(Milborne Stileham was created from Bere Regis and Winterborne Kingston in 1866)
Holwell (transferred from Somerset 1844)
Stock Gaylard (absorbed by Lydlinch 1884)
Pulham (part)
Hawkchurch (part) (transferred to Devon 1896)
Poole (part of Canford Magna; borough from 1248; County of Itself 1571)
(Kinson, Longfleet and Parkstone were created from Canford Magna 1866)
Blandford Forum (borough from 1605)
Corfe Castle (borough from 1268 or 1576)
Belchalwell (divided between Okeford Fitzpaine and Fifehead Neville 1884)
Cranborne (part)
East Woodyates (created 1858)
Edmondsham (part)
Hampreston (part; entire from the 1860s, when the other part was transferred from Hampshire)
Tollard Royal (divided between Dorset and Wiltshire until the 1880s, when the Dorset part was transferred to Wiltshire)
(Alderholt and Verwood were created from Cranborne in 1894)
Chickerell (part)
Melcombe Regis (part of Radipole; a borough from 1268)
Upwey (part)
Winterborne Came (part)
Powerstock (part)
Milborne St Andrew (part)
Hanford (from 1858)
Frome Whitfield (absorbed by Dorchester Holy Trinity in 1610)
Leweston (from 1858)
Sherborne (a borough from 1227)
Toller Porcorum (part)
Hawkchurch (part)
Weymouth (part of Wyke Regis; a borough from 1252)
Cranborne (part)
Stockland (part) (transferred to Devon 1844)
Thorncombe (transferred to Devon 1844 and back to Dorset 1896)
Wimborne All Saints (absorbed by Wimborne St Giles 1732)
West Woodyates (created 1858)
Moreton (part)
Owermoigne (later a separate liberty)
Watercombe (from 1858)
(Chetnole and Leigh were created from Yetminster in 1866)
For full details see List of liberties in Dorset