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262 later on, Hayes. It is first mentioned in a charter of Ceadwalla dated 678, in which that King granted Gedding and Wudeton to Archbishop Theodore. As Ceadwalla was a West Saxon King who had succeeded a Mercian as the overlord, this was probably, a confirmatory grant. The name Gedding, modified in spelling to Yeading, still survives in the parish of Hayes. These grants of lands to monasteries and Bishops by the early Anglo-Saxon Kings were colonization grants. All that they had in their power to give was the land, certain services from the people already settled on the land, or who might become settled on it, and the fines and forfeitures falling to the lord from the administration of the law.

Kent, of all the Old English kingdoms, had probably the least room for the expansion of its people. As they increased in number, they were necessarily obliged to seek new homes and migrate. We can hardly imagine any more likely circumstance in relation to the settlement of Middlesex than that some of the surplus population on the Archbishop’s land in Kent should have been allowed to settle on his lands in Middlesex, to the advantage of both the settlers and their lord. In considering this probability, we should also remember the clause in the laws of Wihtræd, drawn up about 685, which refers to the Kentish freedman, his heritage, wergeld, etc., not only in Kent, but elsewhere, the words used being, ‘Be he over the march, wherever he may be.’ It is quite clear from these words that some of them had gone over the march at that early time.

A considerable proportion of the people who settled in Middlesex appear to have come from Kent, and to have retained privileges which their ancestors had also possessed. This is shown as probable by the Domesday records concerning the cottars. They were the labouring class of manorial tenants, but had land of their own, and had also more freedom as small tenants than those called borderers in many other counties. Cottars are only mentioned in Domesday Book in considerable numbers