In its monetary system and reckoning the kingdom of Kent seems to have been peculiar from the first,[1] and to have continued peculiar for centuries, for its shilling was exactly equal in value to two of the small gold coins, known as tremisses, in circulation in North-East Frisia in Charlemagne’s time,[2] the ratio between gold and silver at that time being 1 to 12. The evidence that Kent was occupied mainly by Goths and Frisians appears, therefore, to be established by the monetary systems of these ancient nations, which point to ancient commercial intercourse between them and Kent, or to racial affinity. This commercial connection between the Goths and Frisians is also supported by the earliest knowledge we have of the wergelds, or fines for slaying a freeman, paid to his kindred by Goths of the Isle of Gotland and by the East Frisians. It was 160 gold solidi, or shillings, in the case of each of these tribal people.[3]
As regards the shapes of villages and settlements, Kent affords examples, apparently, of both the isolated homestead system, which may be ascribed to Frisians, and of the collected homestead plan. The lone farmhouses in the county, which are called tons—such as Shottington, Wingleton, Godington, and Appleton—may be regarded as venerable monuments of the settlement in these instances having been by families and not by larger communities.
The influence of Kent in the origin of the Old English race has been under-estimated. This early kingdom was a limited area, with no hinterland for expansion and for the settlement near it of its surplus population. As time passed on, its limits were found too circumscribed to accommodate the increasing number of its people, and colonies were sent out. We can trace some of these Kentish colonial settlements, as will be shown in later chapters, in some of the southern and western counties, in Essex, and in the upper parts of the Thames valley.
