Virgate

The virgate was a unit of land area measure in mediæval England. The virgate was a measurement that defined how much land a team of two oxen could plough in a year. It was equivalent to quarter of a hide or quarter of a carucate The virgate was 30 acres in area. A virgater would then be considered a peasant worker who owned this area of land. Similarly, a half virgater would be a person who owned fifteen acres, who might be called alternatively a bovater. A bovate is half of a virgate. However, the terms bovate and virgate tend to be used in different parts of England.

Virgate is an anglciisation of the Latin virgati (plural). The historic English translation was yardland.