Kennet is first mentioned in court records in February of 1705, when Henry Peirce
appeared in court as constable for that township. This township originally
included all of Pennsbury and a part of Pocopson. The name is thought to
have been suggested by Francis Smith, who in 1686 had taken up 200 acres of land
at the mouth of Pocopson Creek. Francis Smith had come from Devizes, in
Wiltshire, England, in which county there is a village called Kennet.
There were several resurveys after the initial one in 1686, and one large
survey divided and confirmed the eastern portion to Letitia Penn - 1701.
In 1760 the court was petitioned for a division of the township into East and West
Kennet by a line from the road at the division of Marlborough and Kennet
at Caleb Pierce's land, and from thence along a road towards Wilmington, by John
Powell's, to the township line. Ten years later a divisin was made and
Pennsbury was taken from the eastern part.