ABSTRACT

Passing judgment on Edward Hasted as a historian is a subjective exercise, deeply influenced by the time and the viewpoint from which it is carried out. Assessing Hasted’s History of Kent is like holding a mirror to the prejudices and preferences of the person and the age that judges him afresh: the exercise has to be carried through with a clear view of the bias contained in that judgment. The contrast illuminates the magnitude of Hasted’s task in trying to identify all the owners in all Kent parishes through all the ages. The pure and unadulterated Hasted, even in the first edition, is an elusive character. The Hasted manuscripts, bought by the British Library, include the text of the work he intended, with an Introduction, and interspersed comments as Hasted set out the documents relating to different counties Hasted’s obsession with landed families seems less of an obsession when all his manuscripts are surveyed.