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NE of the most interesting circumstances connected with the settlement of Essex is the old Kentish colony which was formed in the north-east of the county, and was part of the territory belonging to St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Æthelbert, King of Kent, was the overlord of Essex in the beginning of the seventh century. He was also the founder of St. Paul’s, and endowed it and the Bishopric of London with its earliest estates. Three centuries after his time Æthelstan, King of Wessex, confirmed its possessions to the Church. The date and authenticity of the charter in which Æthelstan is said to have done this is perhaps doubtful, but it is not doubtful that the landed estates of the See of London had been held beyond the memory of man in Æthelstan’s time. The estate of this church in the north-east of Essex comprised Walton-on-the-Naze and the adjoining parishes of Kirby-le-Soken and Thorpe-le-Soken. These parishes were known as the ‘Liberty of the Soke’ for many centuries, and comprised several later manors within them. The name for this district in the Anglo-Saxon period was Ædulfness or Æduves-nasa.

That this district on the north-east coast of Essex was a Kentish colony is proved by its customs, which were identical with the gavelkind customs of Kent in the following particulars: