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Victoria County History of Kent Vol. 3  1932 - Introduction to the Kent Domesday Survey - Page 179

value for the study of the boroughs and the Kentish laws, and for place-names and Saxon and Norman tenants. Their numerical statistics agree in the main with Domesday. The information they give will be considered later.
   Geographically, the county shows several striking characteristics. First, the large subdivisions called lests, laeds, or ‘leths’ in the ‘Domesday Monachorum,’ ‘lests’ in Domesday, which continue as’ lathes ‘; second, the great number and small size of the hundreds; and third, the contrast between the highly civilized, thickly settled parts of Kent, and the inaccessible, sparsely peopled regions of weald and marsh.
   The lests of Kent appear clearly for the first time in the Survey, although a late Saxon document as to Rochester Bridge refers to the ‘leth belonging (pertaining) to Aylesford manor,’ and to the ‘leth belonging to Hollingbourne.’10 The existence of such divisions of the county is probably indicated, however, in Saxon charters which refer to the wealds and marshes of the Burhwara, Wearawara, and the Limenwara of East Kent, wealds and marshes, that is to say, common to the dwellers in these divisions.11 The reference in Domesday itself12  to the ‘men of the four lests’ who agree upon the ancient customs, has the ring of antiquity. There is no indication in the Survey of the lest as a judicial division, but it may be noted that in later times the lest may be called to sanction ancient customs with regard to the repair of sea walls.13  The meeting places of the lests are not given, the reference to Pennenden in the Survey having to do evidently with the shire meeting.14
   The lests in Kent are reckoned in Domesday itself as five full lests and two half lests, but the ‘Domesday Monachorum’ adds to the number the lest of Sandwich. In the western part of the county were the half lests of Middleton and Sutton, and the lest of Aylesford ; in the eastern part were the four full lests of Borowar lest, Wyewar lest, Limowar lest, and Eastry lest, to adopt later forms for the multitudinous spellings of Domesday. Some difficulty arises in arranging the hundreds within the proper lests because of Domesday’s occasional failure to state the name of the lest in which the hundred occurs; in such cases, however, accuracy can usually be obtained by the study of the geographical position and the later classification of the hundred in question. Occasionally reasonable doubt still remains, as the following lists show.14a
   The half lest of Sutton included the following hundreds :—Achestan (modern form, Axton), covering also the later Dartford, Wilmington, and Codsheath hundreds, the last appearing as Codesede in the ‘Domesday Monachorurn’; Brunlei (Bromley and Beckenham); Grenviz (Blackheath); Helmestrei (Ruxley) ; Litelai (Little and Lesnes) ; Oistreham (Westerham and Edenbridge); and Sumerden. 
   The lest of Elesfort (Aylesford) included the following hundreds :— Aihorde or Haihorne (Eyhorne); Broteham (Wrotham); Ceteham (Chatham and Gillingham) ; Essamele (Shamel) ; Hov (Hoo) ; Lavrochesfel
   10  Birch, Cartul. Sax. Nos. 1321, 1322.      11 Ibid. For example, Nos. 248, 496, 507, 539.
   12  See p. 203b.                                               13  For example, Assize R. (P.R.O.), No. 365, m. 73d.
  
14  See p. 204a. The meeting places may perhaps be indicated by the name of the lest.
   15  See Note 30a below. The following lists of hundreds agree in the main with Mr. Jolliffe’s (Eng. Hist. Rev. xliv, 612 et seq.). Thus, the hundreds of Sutton, Aylesford, and Milton agree; there is some question with regard to placing Prestetune, Feleberghe, and Boltune hundreds in their appropriate lests; special treatment has been accorded Folkestone, Reculver, Romney, Whitstable, and Fordwich by Mr. Jolliffe; and Adisham, regarded as a hundred by the Domesday Monachorum, is omitted.

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