OCTA OCGA OHT or OIRIC (d. 532?), king of Kent son of Æsc or Oisc [q.v.], the son of Hengest [q.v.] succeeded his father in or about 512 and is supposed to have reigned over the Jutish invaders and conquerors of Kent about twenty years (Hen. Hunt.); he may therefore have died about 532. He left a son named Eormenric who succeeded him. William of Malmesbury notes that Octa and Eormenric reigned between them for fifty three years that is until 565 when Eormenric was succeeded by his son Ethelbert or Æthelberht (552? - 616) [q.v.] but says
that it is uncertain whether Octa or did not for a time share the kingship. Octa's reign is described as obscure. Having conquered Kent the Jutes found themselves blocked from an advance westward by Andredsweald and from the Thames waterway by the bridge and defences of London, and seem to have remained quiet for a century after their victory of 473 (Green).
[Bede's Hist. Eccl. ii. c. 5 (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Hen. of Huntingdon, i. c. 40, Will. of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum, i. c. 8, De primo Sax. adventu ap. Symeon of Durham, ii. 367, all in the Rolls Ser.; Green's Making of England, p. 40.]
