Custom Search

Virginia State...

Virginia Landscape

Virginia

Virginia Counties

Click Image to Enlarge

Virginia Counties

The Commonwealth of Virginia is divided into 95 counties and 39 independent cities, which are considered county-equivalents for census purposes.

New Kent County, Virginia

New Kent County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: New Kent
Year Organized: 1654
Square Miles: 210

Court House:

P.O. Box 50
County Courthouse
New Kent, VA 23124-0050

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Kent is named for either the English county of Kent or for Kent Island in Chesapeake Bay.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

New Kent County formed from York and James City Counties. James City County gave only a small portion, possibly at a later date. [Virginia Counties: Those Resulting from Virginia Legislation, by Morgan Poitiaux Robinson, originally published as Bulletin of the Virginia State Library, Volume 9, January, April, July 1916, reprinted 1992 by Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, MD.]

New Kent County was named either for the English county of Kent or for Kent Island, in the upper waters of the Chesapeake Bay. William Claiborne, a native of Kent who had been driven from Kent Island by Lord Baltimore, was a prominent resident of the New Kent area about 1654 when the county was formed from York County. Its area is 221 square miles, and the county seat is New Kent. The population is 13,462 according to the 2000 census. New Kent is one of the Commonwealth's Burned Records Counties.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 223 square miles (579 km²), of which, 210 square miles (543 km²) of it is land and 14 square miles (36 km²) of it (6.23%) is water. The Chickahominy River borders the county to the south, the Pamunkey and York rivers border it to the north and east.

Neighboring Counties:

Charles City County, VA to the south
Hanover County, VA to the northwest
Henrico County, VA to the west
James City County, VA to the southeast
King and Queen County, VA to the east
King William County, VA to the north

Cities and Towns:

- New Kent (County Seat)

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

Custom Search