(Redirected from List of counties in Delaware)
The
U.S. state of '
Delaware' has three 'counties':
New Castle,
Kent, and
Sussex, the fewest counties of any U.S. state.
[1] The origin of the county boundaries go back to former court districts. The powers of the counties' legislative bodies are limited, dealing primarily with zoning and development issues.
Politics and government
Each county elects its own legislative body (known in New Castle and Sussex counties as the ''County Council'', and in Kent County as the ''Levy Court''). The counties are able to raise taxes and borrow money. They also have control over garbage disposal, water supply, sewerage, zoning, development, and building codes.
[2]
Most functions which are handled on a county-by-county basis in other states — such as court and law enforcement — have been centralized in Delaware, leading to a significant concentration of power in the Delaware state government. The counties were historically divided into
hundreds, which were used as tax reporting and voting districts until the 1960s. However, the hundreds now now serve no administrative role, their only current official legal use being in real-estate title descriptions.
[3]
History
Following the English conquest of 1664, all of the land on the western side of the
Delaware River and
Delaware Bay was governed as part of the
New York Colony and administered from the town of
New Castle. During the brief recapture of the colony by the
Dutch in 1673, additional court districts were created around
Upland and Whorekill.
[4]. The latter was also known as Hoornkill, and is now the town of
Lewes.
[5] The court at New Castle was left with the central portion of the colony. The jurisdiction left to the court at became
New Castle County, and the county seat remained at New Castle until 1881 when it was moved to
Wilmington. In 1680, Whorekill District was divided into Deale County and St. Jones County.
[6] After this division, Lewes became the county seat of Deale, which was later renamed ''Sussex County''.
The former Upland District was named after the
Swedish settlement of
Upland, and it was renamed
Chester County in 1682. It is now wholly within the present boundaries of
Pennsylvania.
Lord Baltimore, the Proprietor of
Maryland claimed all of present-day Delaware, and organized the northern and eastern portions of it as Durham County, Maryland. However, this county existed only on paper. The southern and western portions of present-day Sussex County were organized as portions of several adjacent Maryland counties and were not recognized as part of Delaware until the
Mason-Dixon Survey was run in 1767
[7] In
1791, with the expansion of Sussex County to the south and west, the county seat was moved to
Georgetown.
The county seat of St. Jones (renamed ''Kent County'' in 1681
) is at
Dover.
The boundaries between the old districts were not well defined, and there is some indication that before 1682 the Upland District served the Swedish and Finnish population throughout the central
Delaware Valley, and
New Castle served the Dutch and the few English.
County information
The
Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) code, which is used by the United States government to uniquely identify counties, is provided with each entry. The FIPS code for each county links to census data for that county.
References
1. How Many Counties are in Your State?
2. Chapter Title 9 Counties
3. The Hundreds of Delaware: 1700 - 1800, Delaware Department of State:Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs website
4. Delaware Counties
5. The Name of Whorekill Hazel D. Brittingham
6. Delaware Counties and Hundreds
7. A brief history of the Mason-Dixon survey line John Mackenzie
8. FIPS 6-4 Lookup
9. Delaware Counties
10. {{cite web|url=http://www.hsd.org/DHE/DHE_where_counties.htm|title=Counties|work=Delaware History Online|}accessdate=2007-04-26}}
11. Delaware QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau
External Links
★
Kent County
★
New Castle County
★
Sussex County
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