CHAPTER III
TO BE KNOWN AS KENT COUNTY
The Isle of Kent, the proud but beautiful Virgin Queen of the Chesapeake, was now joined in the bonds of holy wedlock with Maryland; changing her state she also changed her name, and, together with all her possessions, will hereafter be known as Kent County, until irreverent hands carved away with invisible lines her ancient domains; and herself, sole relic of the olden time, deprived of her marriage crown, was given as a dowry to the daughter of her elder sister.
Governor Calvert, the 18th day of April, 1647, commissioned Robert Vaughan to be chief captain and commander of all the militia of the Isle of Kent, and invested him with the power of martial law. He further authorized the said Captain Robert Vaughan to award au process necessary, according to the law and custom of this province, etc.; and he also authorized the said Captain Robert Vaughan, William Cox, Thomas Bradnox, Edward Comins, Philip Conner and Francis Brooke, or the major part of them, whereof the said Robert Vaughan to be always one, to hear, try and judge, according to the laws of this province, all actions and causes civil, except where the freehold of any one shall come in question, provided that it shall be lawful for any man, at any time before execution served, to appeal unto the provincial court; and he also invested them with criminal jurisdiction, excepting when the life or members of any one person shall come in question.
He further authorized Captain Vaughan, by commission dated the 31st of Nay, to collect, demand and receive, for the use of the Lord Proprietary, all customs, confiscations, forfeitures and escheat, by any means and at any time, due to his said Lordship upon the said island, and also by two other commissions to Mr. Francis Brooke, he was required to take into his custody all neat cattle belonging to his said Lordship in the said island, and particularly all the estate of John Abbott, late of said island.
These were the last acts of Governor Leonard Calvert. A few days afterwards, on the 9th of June, 1647, he died, after having appointed, by a verbal nomination, Mr. Thomas Greene as his successor.
The first parliament of Maryland assembled in April, 1649, at St. Mary's, fifteen years after the landing of the Pilgrims under Governor Calvert.
Kent was the only other, county within the limits of the principality. Captain Nicholas Martin represented the County in the parliament and was paid twenty-six pounds of tobacco each day ($1.56). In 1650-60 arrived the families of Burgess, Ringgold, Hynson, Jones, Wickes, Smyth, Leeds, Paca, Chase, Pearce, Chambers, Tilghman, Thompson, Frisby, Wroth and other well-known names whose descendants figure- prominently in Kent.
This county was named after the English shire from whence came most of the early settlers, who saw in its smiling landscape a replica of the fairest county of England. It has an area of 315 square miles, of which about 75 miles are water. It has 435 miles of county roads.
To what sort of country did our colonist come? Nothing small or mean greeted the eye.. There was the magnificent expanse of the Chesapeake Bay; there was the beautiful Chester, beside which it can well be said, "the Thames was but a rivulet"; there were mighty forests stretching as far as the eye could reach, unchoked by briers, and containing strange and beautiful trees"; there were banks and groves dotted with the early flowers of spring; there were myriads of water fowl and flocks of wild turkeys; there were new and wonderful birds - the jay with his coat of blue, the tanager in his feathers of scarlet, and, strangest of all, the oriole in a dress of black and green - and this was Kent. No scarcity of food ever existed. The bay and rivers were teeming with fish and covered with water fowl, while the forests held multitudes of wild turkeys, deer, bears and small game. As for corn harvests,, they were so bountiful that corn was almost immediately sent to New England and there exchanged for salt fish and other supplies.
In 1648 the county had 135 persons. In 1652-3 there were 66 white males and 330 white souls in Kent. In 1910 there were 10,795 white inhabitants and 5,162 colored. The assessment was $9,880,450 on real estate and $30,629.40 on stocks.
It is separated from Delaware on the east by a line run by Mason and Dixon. The western boundary is formed by the upper portion of the Chesapeake Bay, while the Sassafras River separates it from Cecil and the Chester River from Queen Anne's County. The county is located between the parallels of 39 degrees and 39 degrees 22 minutes, south latitude, and between the meridians of 75 degrees 42 minutes and 75 degrees 16 minutes, west longitude. In 1910 the farms in Kent were estimated at 956, and the average acreage 179.
Tobacco was the most common currency of the province, and in 1650 one pound of it was worth three pence of English money. Our ancestors sat upon stools, dined without forks, made free use of the napkin, and paid especial attention to the furniture of their bed chambers. The walls of their principal rooms were wainscoted; tea and coffee were rarely tasted; cider and sack were drank freely; plenty of fish, oysters and canvasback ducks.
Page(s) 29-32, History of Kent County, Maryland, 1630-1916, by Fred G. Usilton, 1916
Transcribed by Nathan Zipfel for the Maryland History and Genealogy Project