"On March 19, 1653, Joseph Kent, of Braintree, testified in a law suit between the Widow Wilson and Thomas Faxon, both of Braintree, and in his testimony gave his age as sixteen years. It is well known that in 1644 Joseph, with his brother John, was brought from England by their brother Joshua, of Dedham, but their parentage or English birthplace is as yet unascertained. The fact that Joseph was but seven years of age, and his brother John but a little older, when brought from England, would indicate that they were left at least motherless and perhaps orphans when very young. Joshua and John Kent settled in Dedham, while Joseph, the ancestor of the line of Kents here following, was placed it would seem in the custody of his aunt, Elizabeth Hardier, of Braintree, and here he continued to reside until arriving at man's estate, when he married Susannah George, daughter of Peter George. About 1660 Joseph Kent became a resident of Block Island, Rhode Island, which at this time was settled almost wholly by Braintree people. In May, 1664, the first assembly of Rhode Island [was] established by the charter convened at Newport. The affairs of Block Island were arranged and settled at this first session, and Joseph Kent with two others were the 'messengers' or deputies from the Island. On December 15, 1673, he was admitted an inhabitant of Swansea, and his name frequently appears in the records of the town after that date. In the court orders of Swansea he was mentioned to be propounded a freeman, June 7, 1681, and on June 6, 1682, he was made a freeman. July 7, 1681, he with others was appointed on a committee by the town of Swansea in the town's behalf for the regulation of differences in the division of Swansea lands. Another court record of the town reads: 'In reference unto sixteen or seventeen bushells of corne taken from Joseph Kent of Swansea and improved for the reliefe of some souldiers in the time of the late Indian wars the Courtt have ordered that it or the value thereof to be repayed by the Treasurer.' Joseph Kent was doubtless a farmer, and like thousands of others of the Pilgrims and Puritans, who settled New England, he seems to have been an honest, an industrious and a God-fearing man. Possessing neither much of wealth or of education their strong right arms and their fear of God became their best and only assets, the former assuring them a living wrung from the woods and the soil and the latter an honest and a sufficient government in a new world. The children of Joseph and Susannah (George) Kent were: Joseph, …; Samuel, born 1668, died 1737; Joshua, 1672, died August 11, 1675; Susannah, September 25, 1687, died August 10, 1774."
