Surnames beginning 'O'

The Cromwell Association Online Directory of Parliamentarian Army Officers . Originally published by British History Online, , 2017.

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'Surnames beginning 'O'', in The Cromwell Association Online Directory of Parliamentarian Army Officers , (, 2017) pp. . British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/cromwell-army-officers/surnames-o [accessed 7 May 2024]

Surnames beginning 'O'

Oates, Thomas Thomas Oates
Of the Manor House, Morley township, Batley parish, Yorkshire (West Riding). An officer in York. Cornet to Captain George Gill, 24 May to 20 Nov. 1643 and his lieutenant from 20 Nov. 1643 until 13 June 1644. He may have been captured by Prince Rupert’s troops at Market Drayton, Shropshire in 1644, but if so he was soon back in action, from June 1644 until Dec. 1645 serving as captain in Christopher Copley’s regiment of horse. In 1645 he claimed to have lost 11 horses in service, and in 1648 he claimed arrears of £872 14s 6d in pay and £400 in expenses.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 396; Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 104.
Armies: Yorkshire
Odingsells, Edward Edward Odingsells
Lieutenant to Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Edward Denny in Colonel Thomas Ballard’s regiment of foot in Lord Wharton’s Army raised for service in Ireland in 1642. Instead, he became captain in Sir William Fairfax’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army by or from 20 Aug. 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 44; TNA, SP28/1a/191.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Ogee, William William Ogee
Ensign in Thomas Ballard’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 43.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Oglander, George George Oglander
In 1642 captain of a troop of horse in the Chichester Rape division of the Sussex Trained Bands. He may be the George Oglander who was younger son of Sir William Oglander of Nunwell, Isle of Wight, and thus a younger brother of the diarist Sir John Oglander, who noted in his commonplace book that his brother George died on 30 Aug. 1647 at his house at Kingston, near Chichester, ‘an honest man and a good – or, rather, excellent – husband, but a most violent man for the Parliament’s cause. I lost a most loving brother, but hope that I shall not be long after’ (F. Bamford, A royalist’s notebook, p. 112).
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 130.
Armies: Sussex
Ogle, Henry Henry Ogle
Of Whiston, Lancashire. Commissioned captain of a troop of horse in the Lancashire militia, 16 Aug. 1650.
References: CSPD, 1650, 509; Gratton, Lancs. war effort, 299.
Armies: Lancashire
Ogleby, - - Ogleby
Down to his death at the siege of Lincoln in May 1644, captain in the earl of Manchester’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.65.
Armies: Eastern Association
O’Hara, Charles Charles O’Hara
Captain in Lawrence Crawford’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army from 1 Feb. 1644 until at least 1 Mar. 1645. Probably one of the officers in the regiment who had previously served in Ireland, though not named in lists of Ormonde’s officers.
With the formation of the New Model Army O’Hara continued captain in Robert Hammond’s regiment of foot (the regiment Crawford was originally nominated to command). In Apr. 1647 O’Hara was willing to go to Ireland, and drew off several junior officers and about 400 men (including his whole company) from the rest of the regiment to Newport Pagnell, there to be part of a new regiment under Owen O’Connelly, of which O’Hara was to be lieutenant-colonel. The regiment did not go to Ireland and was disbanded by parliament’s order of 21 July 1647. O’Hara left Hammond’s regiment.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.16; Davies, 'Eastern Association’, 94; JHL, 9.22; Temple, ‘New Model Army’, 56; Firth & Davies, Regimental history, 1.348, 350-1; JHC, 3.428; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 45, 56, 66, 77, 87.
Armies: Eastern Association; New Model Army
Okeshott, - - Okeshott
Lieutenant in the company of Henry Chitty in Anthony Stapley’s/Algernon Sidney’s Sussex regiment of foot by 25 Apr., succeeding as its captain in Nov. 1645.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 122.
Armies: Sussex; Waller (Southern Association)
Okey, John John Okey (1606-1662)
Born a younger son of William Okey of St Giles in the Fields, London. Despite royalist sneers that the family was poor and that John was a drayman and stoker before the civil war, in fact the Okeys held property in and around the capital and John was probably running a prosperous ships’ chandlers business near the Tower by the time of the war. In 1642-3 he seems to have served as a captain in several regiments within the earl of Essex’s Army – successively in Browne’s regiment of dragoons, in Brooke’s troop or regiment of horse and then in Hesilrige’s regiment of horse, where he stayed until spring 1645, thus becoming part of Waller’s Army, promoted major in 1644. He transferred to the New Model Army in spring 1645 and became the long-serving colonel of the New Model’s regiment of dragoons. As such, he played a prominent role in the battle of Naseby and in many of the New Model operations in the South West during 1645-6 and both ahead of and then with and under Cromwell in South Wales in 1648. He was an active regicide.
He and his regiment did not serve in Cromwell’s Irish campaign, but they did go with Cromwell to Scotland in 1650 and remained campaigning there under Monck, helping to mop up northern Scotland. He was back in England by 1652. He supported Cromwell’s ejection of the Rump, but he was uneasy about the Protectorate, probably due to republican sympathies. He campaigned again in Scotland briefly during 1654, but in the latter half of the year – having been elected for a Scottish seat in the first Protectorate Parliament – he was one of a group of army officers who put their names to a republican petition criticising and condemning the Protectorate. For that he was arrested, court martialled and condemned to death but reprieved, though he was cashiered. He retired to Bedfordshire, where he had acquired property; by now a wealthy man, he also had property in London and Middlesex, in Cambridgeshire and Scotland. But his republican and possibly Fifth Monarchist-tinged opposition to the Protectorate persisted, especially after he had been returned to the third Protectorate Parliament (Richard Cromwell’s). He was restored to his military command by the returning Rump in spring 1659, dismissed again when a clutch of senior army officers seized power in the autumn, only to be restored once more when the Rump returned in Jan. 1660. However, his known republicanism led him to oppose the return of MPs who had been removed at Pride’s Purge and he was dismissed by Monck in Feb. 1660. He fled to the continent at the Restoration but was seized in the Netherlands and brought back to England, where he was tried and executed in spring 1662. He thus earns the unusual distinction of being one of very few parliamentarian colonels to be tried and condemned to death by both the Protectoral and the Stuart regimes.
References: Oxford DNB; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 50, 60, 71, 81, 92, 104.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Waller (Southern Association); New Model Army
Oland [Owland], Henry Henry Oland [Owland]
Variously placed in 1642-3 with Popham’s regiment of dragoons, Cole’s regiment of dragoons and Nathaniel Fiennes’s regiment of horse; he served in the last of these regiments from 28 Mar. to 26 July 1643 as captain of dragoons. On 29 Apr. 1643 he was at Dorchester with Fiennes’s Major Langrish. He became captain in Sir William Waller’s regiment of horse on 25 Oct. 1643, although he first mustered his troop on 12 Mar. 1644. He remained there until the regiment’s disbandment in Apr. 1645.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 5.560-2 6.611-2; Spring, Waller’s army, 142.
Armies: Somerset; Bristol; Waller; Waller (Southern Association); Somerset: Popham’s Regt. of Dragoons and Cole’s Regt. of Dragoons;
Colonel William Strode’s Regt. of Foot
Oland, Henry Henry Oland
Captain of dragoons. Variously placed in 1642-3 with Popham’s regiment of dragoons, Cole’s regiment of dragoons and Nathaniel Fiennes’s regiment of horse. On 29 Apr. 1643 Oland was at Dorchester with Fiennes’s Major Langrish,
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 5.560-2; 6.611-2.
Armies: Bristol; Somerset: Popham’s Regt. of Dragoons and Cole’s Regt. of Dragoons;
Colonel William Strode’s Regt. of Foot
Oliver, John John Oliver
Ensign in Captain Ellis’s company in the regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army commanded first by Sir John Palgrave and later by Sir Thomas Hoogan.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.79.
Armies: Eastern Association
Oliver, Thomas Thomas Oliver
Captain in Edward Cooke’s regiment of foot from Aug. 1643, when it was formed, until its reduction in May 1644 into Hesilrige’s regiment of foot. On 12 May 1644 he joined Waller’s Lifeguard, serving there until 1 Dec. 1644.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 29.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
Omer, Andrew Andrew Omer
A captain in John Birch’s newly-formed regiment of foot raised in Kent for Waller’s Southern Association Army by 6 Aug. 1644.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 16.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association); Kent
O’Neale, - - O’Neale
Of Otley, Yorkshire (West Riding), a parliamentarian captain in Yorkshire.
References: Hopper, ‘Yorkshire parliamentarians’, 116.
Armies: Yorkshire
O’Neale, Moses Moses O’Neale
Captain in the earl of Manchester’s regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army by May 1644 and until its disbandment the following year.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 1.62.
Armies: Eastern Association
Onslow, Sir Richard Sir Richard Onslow (1601-1664)
Baptised 1601, the second son of Sir Edward Onslow of Knoll, Cranleigh, Surrey, but after the death of his father and his elder brother in quick succession, he inherited the family estates and a prominent role in Surrey society. Knighted in 1624, a colonel of horse in the Surrey Trained Bands, a JP and a deputy lieutenant before the war. He was MP for Surrey in the Short and Long Parliaments and he played a leading role in securing Surrey for parliament at the outbreak of the civil war and in the administration of the county throughout the war, though he was involved in a sometimes bitter power struggle with more radical members of the Surrey county committee. Although he emerged victorious from that conflict, suspicions of an overly-moderate outlook lingered and he was secluded and briefly imprisoned by the army at Pride’s Purge, though he was soon released and remained active in Surrey. In summer 1651 he was given command of a Surrey force raised in the face of the Scottish-royalist invasion. He sat for Surrey in the first and second Protectorate Parliaments. Despite some hostility to him, he was pardoned at the Restoration, sat in the Convention and Restoration Parliaments and remained active in Surrey administration down to his death.
Although Onslow’s contribution during the civil war was more political and administrative than military, in autumn 1642 he was commissioned to raise in Surrey and to command a troop of horse and a regiment of foot, the latter drawn from the county’s Trained Bands and so sometimes referred to as the Surrey Auxiliaries. Neither the troop nor the regiment was particularly active, mainly based in Surrey and garrisoning Guildford and the surrounding area, but they did play a part in the unsuccessful siege of Basing House in 1644. Onslow resigned his commission in spring 1645 under the terms of the Self-Denying Ordinance, and his troop and regiment were probably disbanded shortly afterwards.
References: Oxford DNB.
Armies: Surrey; Waller (Southern Association)
Oracroft, Richard Richard Oracroft
Lieutenant to Captain Matthew Alured in Sir William Fairfax’s regiment of horse from 22 Sept. 1643 to 10 June 1644; at the latter date he was promoted captain in the same regiment, of which Alured was now colonel. He remained captain until the regiment was reduced on 23 Jan. 1646.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 396.
Armies: Yorkshire; Northern Army (Fairfax)
Oram, Roger Roger Oram
Oram seems to have come from Winchester. He was at Windsor Castle when Prince Rupert summoned its surrender. From 8 Dec. 1642 to 5 May 1643 he was captain in Colonel Parker’s regiment. From 29 Aug. 1643 to 19 Mar. 1644 he was captain in Edward Cooke’s regiment of foot. From 19 Mar. to 24 Aug. 1644 he was captain in Herbert Morley’s regiment of foot. On 11 Aug. 1644 he was captain of the Guard on the south side of Basing House when the royalists made a successful sortie. He was court-martialled and cashiered on charges of neglect of duty, cowardice, and giving ammunition and having contact with the enemy (although a diary kept by one of the besieged claims that he was innocent of all the charges).
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 28, 101; Godwin, Hants., 236.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association)
Orfice, Richard Richard Orfice
Lieutenant in the earl of Peterborough’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 28.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Orme, Robert Robert Orme
Major in spring 1650, when commissioned lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of foot in the Yorkshire militia, 10 Apr. 1650.
References: CSPD, 1650, 506.
Armies: Yorkshire
Osborne, - - Osborne
Captain in Colonel Richard Hardy’s Kentish regiment, possibly the Scraye Lathe regiment of foot.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 75.
Armies: Kent; Waller (Southern Association)
Osborne, John John Osborne
Ensign in Dorset volunteer foot company under Captain William Lewis. Osborne is named in references 23 June and 19 July 1643.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 5.507.
Armies: Dorset
Osborne, John John Osborne
Captain in the Sutton at Hone Lathe (Kent) regiment of Auxiliaries by Nov. 1643, leading his company at the siege of Arundel Castle.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 72.
Armies: Kent; Waller (Southern Association)
Osbourne, John John Osbourne
Chaplain to Herbert Morley’s regiment of foot by 8 July 1644.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 101.
Armies: Sussex; Waller (Southern Association)
Ottaway, Peter Peter Ottaway
Lieutenant in Thomas Ashfield’s company in the regiment of foot in the Eastern Association Army commanded first by Sir John Palgrave and then by Sir Thomas Hoogan.
References: Spring, Eastern Association, 2.81.
Armies: Eastern Association
Otter, - - Otter
A captain in the small regiment of reformado cavalry commanded by Major James Baker which came up from London to the siege of Chester in late 1645. A ‘gallant soldier’, he was joint-commander of the forlorn hope at the battle of Denbigh Green, Nov. 1645 (Dore, Brereton letter books, 2. 194). Probably the captain ‘Potter’ by whom Baker sent a message to Sir William Brereton in late Dec. 1645.
References: Dore, Brereton letter books, 2. 192-4, 449.
Armies: Reformado; London; Cheshire
Otter, Edward Edward Otter
Ensign in Sir William Fairfax’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 44.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Otter, John John Otter
Quartermaster (1642) and lieutenant (by 29 Aug. 1643) in Major Duett’s [Dowett’s] troop in Sir William Waller’s regiment of horse. On 17 Nov. 1643 he became captain of the troop, taking it into Jonas Vandruske’s regiment, where he served until its disbandment on 30 Apr. 1645.
From May 1645 he was captain of horse in Colonel Henry Sanderson’s regiment of Reformadoes.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 42, 139; Peacock, Army lists, 50.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Waller; Waller (Southern Association)
Otway, Anthony Anthony Otway
Captain Otway’s accounts, submitted in July 1646, record the outlines of his service career under Lord Brooke and in Warwickshire: captain of foot under Lord Brooke, 27 Jan. 1643-6 Apr. 1643; captain of dragoons, 6 Apr.-3 June 1643; captain of horse (Colonel William Purefoy’s regiment), 3 June 1643-2 May 1646 and (for seven weeks’ service under Sir Thomas Fairfax’s command), 3 May-20 June 1646.
The dragoons after two months were converted into the troop of horse, so were actually the same unit, and Otway later claimed that he should not incur the charges involved in the raising of the troop, which were the responsibility of the clerk employed by the gentleman who raised it: at that point, ‘when wee were Dragoones’, he was ‘as a servant’ (TNA, SP28/253B, Captain Anthony Otway’s answers).
Otway was accused in 1646 of false musters and extorting money from delinquent prisoners to get them to buy their freedom: one of his troopers, Edward Bourne, reported incidents of the latter three or four days before Cropredy Bridge (June 1644). Another trooper, Joseph Price, claimed that when the troop and the rest of Purefoy’s regiment were marching from Newport Pagnell and the earl of Essex towards Coventry about St James-tide (early Aug.) 1644, Otway did some looting of Althorp House, Northamptonshire.
Otway became captain in the regiment of horse raised for service in Ireland by Colonel Michael Jones which arrived at Dublin in June 1647. Jones described Otway as ‘faithful and forward’, and in Aug. 1649 sent him with the despatches reporting the victory at Rathmines; the Commons duly voted Otway £200 for his ‘Pains, and faithful service’ (JCH, 6.278). In Oct. 1649 he commanded a troop at the battle of Glascarrig, for which he was commended.
References: Hughes, Warwickshire, 187, 195, 199, 202, 208, 242-3, 257, 259; Firth and Davies, Regimental History, 2.599; TNA, SP28/136, Part 33; TNA, SP28/253B (Bourne, Price, Otway’s answers).
Armies: Lord Brooke; Warwickshire; Ireland
Overstreet, - - Overstreet
Captain in the Tower Hamlets auxiliaries regiment on 22 Oct. 1646.
References: Nagel, ‘London militia’, 317; Marshall, Essex funeral, 11.
Armies: Tower Hamlets
Overton, John John Overton (died in or before 1654)
Of Easington, Yorkshire (East Riding). He married Joan Snawsell. Father of Colonel Robert Overton and uncle of Captain John Overton.
Overton was a captain in the Hull garrison from 29 Oct. 1642, promoted major on 1 July 1643, after his reliability had been confirmed despite his support for Hotham against Cromwell in a petition. Thereafter he makes no further appearance in military records.
During the second civil war he was held prisoner by the royalists for 22 weeks and his property plundered.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 396; Oxford DNB [Robert Overton].
Armies: Yorkshire; Northern Army (Fairfax)
Overton, John John Overton
Son of William Overton of Hull, Yorkshire (East Riding) who was younger brother of Major John Overton of Easington; the younger John was hence Robert Overton’s cousin.
Overton was lieutenant to his uncle Major John Overton in June and July 1643. He was later promoted captain. In 1658 he was a captain in the Hull garrison, when the royalist prisoner Sir Henry Slingsby tried to suborn him and two other officers to betray the town to the Charles II. Their testimony sent Slingsby to the gallows.
References: Jones, ‘War in the North’, 396; Firth and Davies, Regimental history, 2.555, 557.
Armies: Yorkshire;
Overton, Robert Robert Overton (1608/09-1678/79)
Eldest son and heir of John Overton of Easington, Yorkshire (East Riding), an established landed family in the area.
He was educated at Cambridge and at one of the London Inns. In 1642 he took up arms for parliament, fighting in the Fairfaxes’ northern army and playing a prominent role in the defence of Hull in 1643 and the battle of Marston Moor in 1644. In 1645 he was appointed deputy governor of Pontefract, in which capacity he led the attack on and capture of Sandal Castle.
In summer 1647 he joined the New Model Army as colonel of the regiment of foot formerly commanded by William Herbert. He was to the fore in Army politics during 1647. In 1648 he was appointed deputy governor of Hull and he spent parts of the following decade there; thus he played no part in the second civil war or the regicide. He resigned command of his New Model regiment in spring 1649.
In 1650-1 he joined Cromwell’s expedition to Scotland; he was prominent in the battle of Dunbar and was then appointed governor of Edinburgh; in summer 1651 he and his troops crossed the Firth of Forth and he occupied Perth as its new governor. In 1651-2 he campaigned under Monck in northern and western Scotland, at Dundee, Aberdeen, on the Orkneys and on some of the western isles.
He returned to Yorkshire early in 1653 and resumed his role as governor of Hull. In 1654 Cromwell sent him back to Scotland to support Monck but before the end the year he was suspected of republican disaffection, sent back to London and imprisoned first in the Tower and then on Jersey. His four years of imprisonment without trial only ended in spring 1659, when the third Protectorate Parliament (Richard Cromwell’s) directed his release. The returning Rump restored his military command. He did not support the army’s seizure of power in the autumn and instead broadly supported and worked with Monck in winter 1659-60. However, his political and religious radicalism soon led him to express doubts about the direction of events; Monck in turn dismissed him from the governorship of Hull and ordered his return to London. Although in theory included within the pardon enacted soon after the Restoration, in practice Overton spent most of the 1660s under suspicion or arrest or held prisoner in London or Chepstow or confined to Jersey. He spent his final years living with his daughter and son-in-law in Rutland.
References: Oxford DNB; Jones, ‘War in the North’, 396; Wanklyn, New Model Army, I, 80, 91, 98, 103.
Armies: Yorkshire; New Model Army
Owen, - - Owen
Lieutenant in Captain Robert Backhouse’s Gloucester troop of horse. On 23 Dec. 1643 he was paid £20 for the officers of Backhouse’s troop.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 6. 629.
Armies: Gloucestershire
Owen, Abraham Abraham Owen
Lieutenant in the company of Captain Matthew Randall in the Coventry regiment of foot (John Barker/Thomas Willoughby), Dec. 1642- Mar. 1646.
Commissioned captain of foot in the Warwickshire militia, probably in John Barker’s regiment at Coventry, 27 June 1650.
References: TNA, SP28/131, Parts 11, 15 and 53B, f. 115r.; CSPD 1650, 507.
Armies: Warwickshire
Owen, Gerrard Gerrard Owen
Captain, Dorset volunteer foot company, references 29 Oct. 1642-Jan. 1643.
References: Peachey and Turton, Fall of the West, 5.507-8.
Armies: Dorset
Owen, Henry Henry Owen
Captain in Sir Michael Livesay’s regiment of Kentish horse by 1 Mar. 1644 and there until Apr. 1645. He served in the Kentish regiment of horse raised by Augustine Skinner [Skynner] in 1647.
References: Spring, Waller’s army, 80.
Armies: Waller (Southern Association); Kent
Owen, John John Owen
Colonel of the Yellow regiment, London Auxiliaries in Oct. 1646.
References: Nagel, ‘London militia’, 317; Marshall, Essex funeral, 12.
Armies: London
Owen, John John Owen
In summer 1642 he became a lieutenant in Holles’s short-lived regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army. Like most of his fellow-officers and the regiment as a whole, little is heard of him after their shattering defeat at Brentford in Nov. 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 37.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Owen, William William Owen
Perhaps ensign in Sir John Meyrick’s regiment of foot in the earl of Northumberland’s Army against the Scots in 1640.
Captain in William Bampfield’s regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army in 1642.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 81, 40.
Armies: Earl of Essex
Oxford, Wendy Wendy Oxford
Lieutenant in the regiment of foot in the earl of Essex’s Army commanded by Lord Oliver St John and then Thomas Essex in 1642-3. In late summer 1643 he became a captain in Sir Samuel Luke’s regiment of foot and continued to serve in that Newport-Pagnell based regiment until 1645. As such and apparently as one of Luke’s most trusted and active officers, he features regularly in the Luke letter books and quite a few letters to and by him survive there.
References: Peacock, Army lists, 31; Luke Letter Books, especially nos. 29, 147, 223, 247, 255, 260, 262, 264, 278, 303, 842, 969, 997, 1038, 1043, 1054, 1060, 1070, 1074, 1101, 1102, 1562.
Armies: Earl of Essex; Bedfordshire
Oxinden, Henry Henry Oxinden (1609-1670)
Of Great Maydekin, Barham, Kent. Eldest son of Richard Oxinden (baptised 1588, died 1629) and his wife Katherine Sprakeling (1587-1642).
Oxinden is most significant for his correspondence, library and poetry, not for his fairly limited and low-key military activity. He served at the siege of Arundel Castle as a parliamentarian captain, but with friends and kin committed on both sides, for much of the 1640s he presented himself as a neutral. In 1647 his published poetry, however, included an attack on puritan ministers and support for the king. (However, in this he was arguably only going along the same path as his more prominent Oxinden kin.) He may be the Captain Oxinden of Richard Hardy’s Kentish regiment.
References: Oxford DNB; Spring, Waller’s army, 80.
Armies: Kent