Kent County, Maryland

Map of Maryland showing Kent County where this Elburn family lived.

Kent County, Maryland, showing the 7 districts, named after the English County of Kent in 1642.

From the map of Kent County, Maryland shown above, for the 1800’s only: Kent County is divided into 5 districts which are mentioned in the census records. These districts tell us a lot about which family lived where. For example, District 1 is closest to the state of Delaware and this is where my husband’s family came from, who eventually moved to Ohio. Just west of District 1 is District 2, then District 3 runs along the Chesapeake Bay. District 4 covers the entire southerly peak of Kent County and this is where Samuel Elburn and his descendants resided near Rock Hall. District 5 runs along the southeast part of Kent County and borders Queen Anne’s County.

By the 1900’s, these districts were divided into more districts, boundaries changed, and renamed. The names in bold are where the Elbon families lived.

District 1 became the District of Massey with Sassafras, Golts, Massey, Georgetown, Galena, Chesterville, Millington, Lambson

District 2 became the District of Kennedyville with Locust Grove, Kenmore Park, Stillpond, Hepbron, Lynch, Bigwoods, Morgnec

District 3 became the District of Worton with Betterton, Newtown, Smithville, Butlertown, Honesville, Worton, Milifoto

District 4 became the District of Chestertown with Chestertown.

District 5 became the District of Edesville with Rock Hall, Crosby, and Edesville.

District 6 became the District of Fairlee with Georgetown, Fairlee, Sandy Bottom, and Tolchester.

District 7 became the District of Pomona with Longford and Pomona. New District 2 is Kennedy with Stillpond, Bigwoods, Lynch, Hepbron, and Kennedyville.

Map of Delaware and Maryland in 1775

The Delaware-Maryland Divide and
Hundreds Boundaries 1775-1830

The boundary between Delaware and Maryland was originally set to be the line dividing rainfall that flowed into the Chesapeake Bay from rainfall that flowed into the Delaware River and Bay. This MD-DE Divide is shown as a broad serpentine line on the map above.

Travel in the 1700s was primarily by water, so the people who settled west of the MD-DE Divide came primarily from either direct immigration through an Eastern shore Maryland port or moved from what is now Maryland while those who settled east of the MD-DE Divide, especially in New Castle and Kent counties, came primarily from direct immigration through a Delaware port or moved from Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Before 1764, when a team of British surveyors led by Mason and Dixon set the western and southern borders for Delaware, deeds for land in the shaded area of the map below [* Yes we need a new map here, since the shading is not present in the image below *] were often granted by Maryland, which claimed all of present Delaware as "Durham Co."

The borders of the Delaware hundreds (see the page on Delaware's Hundreds) as they had evolved by 1775 remained unchanged until 1830, but they were sometimes designated by more than one name; for example. Dover Hundred was also called St. Jones Hundred and Broadkill Hundred was also called Broadkiln Hundred.

CREDITS: The "Delaware Divide" map appears on page 51 of the Delaware Genealogical Research Guide - 2nd edition (1997) and was taken from the Delaware Geological Survey (Newark DE). The shaded area for Maryland deeds was designated by George L. Caley, and the dashed-line boundaries for hundreds and counties were added by Thomas P. Doherty. See http://delgensoc.org/dedivide.htm.