Kent

/kent/, n.

1. James, 1763-1847, U.S. jurist.

2. Rockwell /rok"wel', -weuhl/, 1882-1971, U.S. illustrator and painter.

3. William, 1685-1748, English painter, architect, and landscape gardener.

4. a county in SE England. 1,445,400; 1442 sq. mi. (3735 sq. km).

5. an ancient English kingdom in SE Great Britain. See map under Mercia.

6. a city in NE Ohio. 26,164.

7. a town in central Washington. 23,152.

8. a male given name: from the Old English name of a county in England.

* * *

I

Administrative (pop., 2001: 1,329,653), geographic, and historic county, southeastern England.

It lies along the English Channel. The Romans ruled the area from AD 43, using Canterbury as a base. It was invaded by Jutes and Saxons in the 5th century and became one of the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon Britain. The king of Kent welcomed St. Augustine's Christian mission in 597; St. Thomas Becket was murdered in Canterbury cathedral in 1170. It has long been known as the "Garden of England," and such crops as apples, cherries, barley, and wheat are widely grown.

II

(as used in expressions)

Kent James

Kent Rockwell

Earl of Kent

* * *

▪ Ohio, United States

      city, Portage county, northeastern Ohio, U.S., on the Cuyahoga River, immediately northeast of Akron. The site was first settled in about 1805 by John and Jacob Haymaker and was called Riedsburg. It was later named Franklin Mills, and when incorporated as a village in 1867 it was renamed for Marvin Kent, a promoter of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad (later Erie Lackawanna Railway).

      Community growth was stimulated by the foundation in 1910 of a state normal school, later Kent State University. In 1970 the university received international attention when an anti-Vietnam War protest there resulted in the deaths of four students. Manufactures (promoted by Akron's industrial expansion) include electric motors, machine tools, dairy products, greenhouse equipment, plastics, and machinery. Inc. city, 1920. Pop. (2000) 27,906; (2005 est.) 28,135.

▪ ancient kingdom, England

      one of the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England, probably geographically coterminous with the modern county, famous as the site of the first landing of Anglo-Saxon settlers in Britain, as the kingdom that received the first Roman mission to the Anglo-Saxons, and for its distinctive social and administrative customs.

      According to tradition, the first settlers, led by Hengest and Horsa, landed at the invitation of the British king Vortigern at Ebbs Fleet in Kent around the mid-5th century. After the reigns of Hengest and of his son Aesc, or Oisc (from whom members of the Kentish royal house were named Oiscingas), nothing is known of Kentish history from 512 until the reign (560–616) of Aethelberht, who by 595 had become overlord of all the kingdoms south of the River Humber. His wife Bertha, daughter of Charibert, the Frankish king of Paris, was a Christian, and it may have been for that reason that Pope Gregory the Great sent Augustine's mission to Aethelberht's court in 597. Aethelberht, after his conversion, gave a dwelling place in Canterbury to the missionaries, and hence this became the first and senior archiepiscopal see of the English church.

      No Kentish kings ever recovered the overlordship held by Aethelberht, but his great grandson Egbert (664–673) was king in Surrey as well as in Kent. From the mid-8th century, Offa, king of Mercia, established his power in Kent, which remained subject to Mercia until conquered by Egbert, king of Wessex, in 825. Henceforward, Kent was a province of Wessex, whose kings became kings of all England in the mid-10th century.

      The social organization of Kent had many distinctive features, which support the statement of the Venerable Bede that its inhabitants were a different tribe from the Angles and Saxons, namely the Jutes. The place of their continental origin is disputed. Instead of two classes of nobles, or gesithcund, as in Wessex and Mercia, Kent had only one, the eorlcund; and the Kentish ceorl, or peasant, was a person of considerably greater substance than those elsewhere. Freehold land in Kent was usually subject to gavelkind, or partible inheritance; administratively, Kent was divided into lathes, apparently centred on royal vills.

▪ county, England, United Kingdom

      administrative, geographic, and historic county of England, lying along the English Channel at the southeastern extremity of Great Britain. A line of chalk hills (the North Downs) running from west to east forms the spine of the county; north of the ridge the land falls to the marshy and low-lying shore of the Thames Estuary, while to the south there is an area of clays and sands forming a rolling, wooded region known as The Weald. The administrative, geographic, and historic counties occupy somewhat different areas. The administrative county has 12 districts: Dover, Sevenoaks, Shepway, and Thanet, the boroughs of Ashford, Dartford, Gravesham, Maidstone, Swale, Tonbridge and Malling, and Tunbridge Wells, and the city of Canterbury. The geographic county comprises the entire administrative county plus the unitary authority of Medway. The historic county includes the entire geographic county as well as eastern portions of Greater London, including all or most of the boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, and Lewisham.

      The long coastline of Kent is alternately flat and cliff-lined. The low Thames coast is bordered by marshes and islands (Grain and Sheppey), while further east the former Isle of Thanet now forms part of Kent. There are chalk cliffs at Thanet at the North Foreland and again between Dover and Deal, but further south is the low-lying area of Romney Marsh, which has emerged from the sea, in part by reclamation, since Roman times. In the extreme southeast is the shingle promontory of Dungeness.

      Because of its position facing the continent of Europe across the Strait of Dover, Kent has been subjected to numerous invasions and has attracted successive waves of settlement. Evidence of early continental invaders is seen at Kits Coty House near Aylesford, a long barrow at Chilham, and at Bigbury (a Belgic hill fort).

      Roman settlement began with the subjugation of the area in 43 CE. The chief Roman supply port was Richborough, and the administrative centre was at Canterbury, where Roman baths and a theatre have been unearthed.

      Early in the 5th century Kent was invaded by Jutes and Saxons, and it became one of the seven kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon Britain. In 597 the King of Kent welcomed St. Augustine (Augustine of Canterbury, Saint)'s Christian mission. Augustine founded an abbey outside the walls of Canterbury, a monastery inside (where the cathedral now stands), and a second diocese (604) at Rochester.

      After the Norman Conquest the Normans rebuilt Rochester and Canterbury cathedrals and constructed a number of castles, of which those at Dover and Rochester survive. In 1170 Canterbury cathedral was the scene of the murder of Thomas Becket, the archbishop. Many pilgrims subsequently visited his shrine, and those of the 14th century were immortalized by Geoffrey Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales.

      The Tudor (Tudor, House of) monarchs established a royal palace at Greenwich, the birthplace of Henry VIII. Under the Tudors, in the 16th century, when defense of Britain's shores became a preoccupation, coastal forts were built (e.g., at Deal), and naval dockyards were established at Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham and Sheerness. The Royal Greenwich Observatory was established in 1675. Sensitivity to the defense of Kent reached a peak in Napoleonic times and again in 1940, when a German invasion was expected.

      As the neighbouring metropolis of London grew, it expanded into the historic county of Kent. In 1889 the present-day boroughs of Greenwich and Lewisham were incorporated into the new administrative county of London, and in 1965 the boroughs of Bexley and Bromley became part of the metropolitan county of Greater London as well.

      Rural Kent has long been known as the “Garden of England.” Fruits, especially apples and cherries, and hops are grown, mainly in the Medway Valley and in north Kent. Market gardening is extensively practiced. Important arable crops include barley, wheat, oats, and potatoes. Romney Marsh, one of the world's finest natural grasslands, is famous for its sheep, but a section of it has been plowed up for the production of spring flowers and bulbs. Industries include papermaking along the Darent and Medway; engineering and the production of chemicals along the Thames; and the production of plastics, bricks, tiles, and cement on the Lower Medway and Swale. There are oil refineries on the Isle of Grain and railway workshops at Ashford.

      The suburbs of London continue to encroach on the farmlands of northwestern Kent, and such towns as Sevenoaks and Tonbridge lie well within the commuter belt of the capital. Britain's entry into the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973 greatly strengthened links between the southeastern section of the county and the Continent by increasing Channel trade. The expansion of trade and the opening in 1994 of the Channel Tunnel, with a terminus at Folkestone, brought new importance to eastern Kent as a warehousing area and focus of shipping and other transportation routes. Area, administrative county 1,368 square miles (3,543 square km); geographic county 1,447 square miles (3,748 square km). Pop. (2005 est.) administrative county, 1,369,718; geographic county, 1,620,818.

▪ county, Maryland, United States

      county, northeastern Maryland, U.S. It consists of a coastal plain bordered by the Sassafras River to the north, Delaware to the east, the Chester River to the south, and Chesapeake Bay to the west. The county, named for Kent, Eng., dates to 1642. Chestertown, the county seat, contains Washington College (founded 1782), one of the oldest colleges in the United States.

      The county's economy is based primarily on agriculture (especially corn [maize], soybeans, vegetables, and milk). Area 280 square miles (724 square km). Pop. (2000) 19,197; (2007 est.) 19,987.

▪ county, Rhode Island, United States

      county, west-central Rhode Island, U.S., lying between Connecticut to the west and Narragansett Bay to the east. The Pawtuxet River flows through the county's northeastern corner. The county was created in 1750 and named for Kent, Eng. There is no county seat, but the principal towns are Coventry, West Warwick, and East Greenwich. Principal economic activities are wholesale trade and the manufacture of chemicals and wiring devices. Area 170 square miles (440 square km). Pop. (2000) 167,090; (2007 est.) 168,639.

* * *