New Kent is one of the oldest and most charming counties in Virginia, and was first mentioned in the records of the General Assembly in the year of 1654. The settlers were of English stock and the County was named for Kent in England. Land grants to the early settlers along the rivers led to large plantations and palatial manor houses, fostering a way of life long associated with our colonial era. Although many of the homes remain, none are regularly open to the public.

New Kent once formed part of Charles River County, one of the eight shires into which the colony of Virginia was divided in 1634. Originally including part or all of the present day counties of King & Queen, King William, Spotsylvania and Hanover, the modern day borders of New Kent took place in 1766 through exchange of land with James City County. The European History of New Kent began with the visit of Captain John Smith in 1607. The English were feasted by the Indians and Smith got several hundred bushels of corn for a few blue beads, representing them as only to be worn by great kings.

The village of New Kent appears to have been the County seat since 1691. Most of the County's colonial records were destroyed in the burning of the clerk's office in 1787, and later records were destroyed in the burning of Richmond during the Civil War.

Providence Forge was one of the earliest settlements and the site of a colonial forge that was destroyed by Banister Tarleton in the Revolutionary War. Even its location was forgotten until uncovered by the great flood of 1868.