The seat of the Eastern Shore's oldest county Kent was finally put at its present location on the Chester River in 1706. Beginning with a Governor's proclamation in 1668, there had been intermittent proposals to establish a colonial port at about this spot on the river. Doubtless the building of a county court house on the present grounds by 1697 all but assured the founding of the town. Faulty provisions for the sale of the land and other setbacks caused the Legislature in 1730 to order a careful surveying of the Town's 100 acres and the laying out of the logical and functional plan which we continue to enjoy to this day.