Giles Brent b. 1600, d. 1671

"Giles Brent (1600-1672)

Giles Brent does not seem to receive as much attention as his more famous sister, Margaret, but he played a significant role in the early development of Maryland.

Giles Brent was the youngest son of Sir Richard Brent, Lord of Lark Stoke and Admington in Gloucestershire, England. We do not know much about his early life until he arrived in Maryland in 1638 with his brother and two sisters.

His family became close to Governor Leonard Calvert, and soon Giles was one of the colony's political and economic leaders. He settled on Kent Island, where he developed a large plantation.

Giles Brent held many roles in Maryland, including Councilor, Treasurer, Commander of Kent Island, judge, and burgess. For a brief period in 1643-44 when Leonard Calvert returned to England, Giles served as Deputy Governor of the colony. Despite this apparent success, he was eventually charged with disloyalty and forced to emigrate to Virginia.

Giles Brent's problems began when he refused to lead the settlers of Kent Island against the local Indians who had been attacking Maryland settlements. He further angered the proprietors (the Calverts, who owned Maryland) when he married Mary Kittamaquund, daughter of the tayak, or emperor, of the Piscataway Indians.

The Calverts believed that Giles had married the Indian princess in hopes of gaining control of more of the Indians' land and that he was a threat to the proprietors' authority. When Giles Brent began to speak out in the Assembly against the Calverts, he was no longer welcome in Maryland.

He and his sister Margaret moved to Virginia in 1649, and Giles died in 1672." http://mdroots.thinkport.org/library/gilesbrent.asp

http://www.ahs.org/river_farm/history.htm

 "A HISTORY OF
GEORGE WASHINGTON’S RIVER FARM

River Farm's first English family was the Brents, a Catholic family who played an active role in the early colonial life of Maryland. Captain Giles Brent originally landed in Jamestown, Virginia but in 1638 returned from a trip to England accompanied by his sisters, Margaret and Mary, to settle in St. Mary’s County, Maryland. The family was related to Lord Baltimore, the King's proprietor in Maryland, and their life in the colony was closely associated with that of Lord Baltimore's brother, Leonard Calvert, the resident governor.

Margaret Brent has been described as the first American feminist — a women who was a lawyer and landowner who petitioned the Maryland legislature for the vote. Through the family relationship, but also due to her own unique abilities, she became executrix for Leonard Calvert upon his death. Lord Baltimore, weeks distant in England, misinterpreted Margaret’s action in settling Calvert's debts and wrote an acrimonious letter requesting that the Brents leave Maryland. The Maryland legislature, which had had its own problems with this assertive woman, arose as a man to her defense and in a letter signed by the entire body told Lord Baltimore that he could not be better represented by any man in the colony. In fact, Margaret was referred to in Maryland records as Margaret Brent, Gentleman.

However, in 1647 – even before Lord Baltimore's letter reached them – the Brents, weary of the political battles with the Calverts and disheartened by religious dissension between Protestants and Catholics in Maryland, had already left the colony to settle near Aquia in Virginia. In 1653/54, Giles Brent received patents totaling 1,800 acres from Thomas, Lord Culpepper for his year-old son, Giles, Jr. Giles' wife was a princess of the Piscataway tribe of Native Americans who had been entrusted to Margaret Brent as a child by her father, a convert to Christianity. She was raised in the Brent household and at the age of 16 was married to Giles, 30 years her senior. The grant of 1,800 acres in their child's name was named Piscataway Neck and included the land which is now River Farm.'