The name is first recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as Beuentreu, meaning tree of a man called Beohha.[2] The original tree, at Becontree Heath, was the location that early hundred meetings took place.[2] Before 1465 it included the area of Havering liberty, which comprised the parishes of Hornchurch, Romford and Havering-atte-Bower, and thus the hundred meeting place was not originally located on the fringe of the area.[3] After the area of the liberty was removed, the hundred contained the parishes of Barking (including Great Ilford), Dagenham, East Ham, Leyton, Little Ilford, Walthamstow, Wanstead and West Ham.[4]
The southern boundary with the Blackheath hundred of Kent was the River Thames, however there was also a land boundary; the Woolwich parish included two small detached parts north of the river,[4] totalling 402 acres (1.63 km2).[5] In the east it bordered the Havering liberty and to the north Waltham and Ongar hundreds.[4] The River Lea formed the western boundary with the Tower division of the Ossulstone hundred of Middlesex. The River Roding runs roughly north to south through the area.
In 1831, the hundred occupied 35,950 acres (145.5 km2).[6] In 1840 the hundred was included in the Metropolitan Police District by the Metropolitan Police Act 1839. The population of the hundred in 1851 was 46,777 and in 1861, 73,023.[1] In 1887 the area is recorded as 37,705 acres (152.59 km2) and the population as 221,217.[7]
