"That Kent was separated at an early period into the two divisions of East and West Kent, may be inferred from a charter (Kemble, Cod. Dipl. ii. 19.) relating to some property withheld from the church of Canterbury, and which is specially described as having been that "of Oswulf, duke and prince of the province of East Kent" ('dux atque princeps provinciæ Orientalis Cantiæ') c. A.D. 844.
"The Saxon Chronicle also confirms this view of the matter, thus:
A.D. 853. "Ealhere with the 'Men of Kent' fought in Thanet against the heathen army (Danes)."—Thanet is in East Kent.
A.D. 865. "The heathen army sate down in Thanet, and made peace with the 'Men of Kent.' And the 'Men of Kent' promised them money for the peace."
A.D. 902. ... "Battle at the Holmes, between the 'Kentish Men' and the 'Danish Men.'—This, I take it, occurred in West Kent.
A.D. 999. "The army (Danes) went up along the Medway to Rochester, and then the 'Kentish forces' stoutly joined battle ... and full nigh
all the 'West Kentish men' they ruined and plundered."
A.D. 1009. "Then came the vast hostile army (Danes) to Sandwich, and they soon went their way to Canterbury; and all the people of 'East Kent' made peace with the army, and gave them 3000 pounds."
"Thus, I trust, I have satisfactorily shown from our ancient annals, that the distinction between 'Kentish Men' and 'Men of Kent,' existed at a period long anterior to the Norman Conquest, and is distinctly recognised in the foregoing historical passages. And its origin may, I think, be attributed to the ancient division of the Jutish kingdom of Kent into the two dioceses of Canterbury and Rochester.
"Our Gavelkind Tenure and free Kentish customs, of which I have attempted a history in my recently published Consuetudines Kanciæ, gave rise to our well-known old provincial song of 'The Man of Kent,' its burthen being: