Interesting, Leathel, YORK COUNTY, VA. was originally named Charles River, and was one of the eight shires formed in 1634. NEW KENT COUNTY was probably named for the English county Kent. Colonel William Claiborne, a native of Kent, was a prominent resident of the Virginia county at the time of its formation. New Kent County was formed from York about 1654. Its area is 221 square miles, and its county seat is New Kent. CLAIBORNE, or CLAYBORNE, William, colonist, known as "The Evil Genius of Maryland," born in Westmoreland, England, about 1589; died in Virginia about 1676. He was a younger son of a distinguished Westmoreland family, and in 1621 was appointed surveyor of the plantations of Virginia, under the London company. He arrived at Jamestown in the ship " George," with Sir Francis Wyatt and other members of the new council, in October, 1621, and, escaping the massacre of 22 March, settled at "James City." He acquired considerable landed estates, amounting, according to the "Land Register of Virginia," to 45,000 acres. On 24 March, 1625, he was commissioned by Charles I. as member of the council, and "to be our Secretary of State for the said Collony and Plantation of Virginia." William Claiborne, a member of the Virginia council, established a trading post on Kent Island just before King Charles I granted the colony of Maryland to Lord Baltimore. Kent Island was the first English settlement in Maryland. Claiborne was born in Kent, England, in 1600's and came to the colonies in 1621. It was from Brancepeth in November 1569 that the Earls of Westmoreland and Northumberland launched their attack on Barnard Castle which was being held for Queen Elizabeth by Sir George Bowles. The Earls had even entered into negotiations with the Spanish Ambassador in an attempt to secure assistance from Philip II; the rebels garrisoned the port of Hartlepool. The rebellion collapsed after the earls were defeated near Durham on the 15 December 1569. Dorothy Mallory married the celebrated Sir George Bowes, of Streatlam in the county of Durham, who was so vigorously withstood the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland in the rebellion of 1569. By her, he had Sir William Bowes, ambassador to Scotland and treasure of Berwick.