Kent County, Ontario


Kent County, area 2,458 km2 is a historic county in the Canadian province of Ontario.
The county was created in 1792 and named by John Graves Simcoe in honour of the English County. The county is in an alluvial plain between Lake St. Clair, and Lake Erie, watered by two navigable streams, the Thames River and the Sydenham River.
On January 1, 1998, the county, its townships, towns, and Chatham were amalgamated into the single-tier city of Chatham-Kent.

Original townships

Camden

Area:. Surveyed in 1794 and named from the Earl of Camden. Community centres:

Chatham

Area: Surveyed in 1794. Community centres:

Dover

Area:. Dover Township was named after Dover, England. It was surveyed in 1794 and incorporated in 1850. Within the boundaries of Dover along the Chenal Ecarte of the river St. Clair is the site of Lord Selkirk's Baldoon Settlement, established in 1803. Community centres:

Harwich

Area:. Surveyed in 1794 and named from the English port at the mouth of the Thames. A resident of Harwich, Valintine Zimmer, co-founded with friends of the same nationality the German Concession of Harwich. Community centres:

Howard

Area:. Surveyed in 1794 and named after Thomas Howard, Earl of Effingham, father-in-law of Sir Guy Carleton. Community centres:

Orford

Area:. Surveyed in 1794 and named from the English port of Orford, Suffolk. Community centres:

Raleigh

Area:. Surveyed in 1794. Likely named for Walter Raleigh. Community centres:

Romney

Area:, Surveyed in 1794. Named for the Kentish port in England. Community centres:

Tilbury East

Area:. Surveyed in 1794, named for the English Tilbury fort in Essex. Community centres:

Zone

Area:. Separated from Orford in 1821 to provide a special organizational district, "the zone", for the Indians of the Moravian Mission on the Thames. Community centres:

Municipalities (as of 1997)