Kent Fort was a fort and settlement located near (38.84°N 76.37°W) on southern Kent Island in colonial Virginia and later Maryland, and was the first English settlement within the boundaries of present-day Maryland and the third oldest permanent English settlement in the United States, after Jamestown, Virginia (1607) and Plymouth, Massachusetts (1620). The fort was established by William Claiborne in 1631, and was a central part of early Kent Island.