people of the east coast of Kent and East Sussex appears always to have been great. They were the ancestors of the people of the Cinque Ports, and by them communications with the Continent during the Saxon period must have been largely maintained. When a migration became necessary for such a population, a maritime colony would naturally suggest itself, in which people of the same races would also probably take part. At the time of the Domesday Survey the burgesses of Dover by old custom supplied the King with twenty ships for fifteen days in the year, each with twenty-one men, and they did this because he had released to them his sake and soke.[1] The maritime facilities of the Kent and Sussex ports must have been formerly relatively great.
In the west of England we can trace the probability of Kentish settlers by the survival here and there of the custom of dividing the lands among all the sons, although the divided parts were taxed collectively, and by the survival here and there of the name Kent. Kent is written in Domesday Book as Chent, and in the same record we find Chent, now Kenn, Chentone,now Kenton, and Chentesbere, now Kentisbear in Devonshire. In the Exon Domesday, Kenn on the Somerset coast, is also written Chent,[2] and Kentisbere is written Chentesberia. Caninganmærsces is mentioned as an old name for the Kentish marshes, and Caninganmærsces in Somerset as an old name for Cannington Marshes.[3]
It is difficult to see how these coincidences can be explained except on the supposition of Kentish settlements. Among other Kent names in Devon are those of Kent’s Cave at Torquay, and Kentsmoor, near Honiton. The place-name Hengestecote, in the parish of Bradford,[4] Devon, occurs in Domesday Book, and Kentish
