after Father Andrew White baptised Kittamaquund in 1640, his daughter Mary moved into the Brent household
Source: WikTree, Andrew White, the Apostle to Maryland, baptizing the Indian chief Chitomachon
after Father Andrew White baptised Kittamaquund in 1640, his daughter Mary moved into the Brent household
Source: WikTree, Andrew White, the Apostle to Maryland, baptizing the Indian chief Chitomachon
The Brent family in Gloucester, England were landed gentry. They were also Catholics. Four of the Brents, two brothers and two sisters, migrated to Maryland as a civil war based partially on religion started in England between Parliamnt and King Charles I. Economic opportunity and personal safety were more available in the only English colony in North America governed by Catholics.
The Brents crossed the Atlantic Ocean and reached St. Mary's City on November 22, 1638. At the time, Margaret Brent was 37 years old. Unusual in that male-dominated colonial society, she served as the head of her own household. In Maryland, she managed her land and wealth independently from her brothers.
The Brents established themselves as landowners and Maryland gentry. Margaret Brent and her sister Mary, both of whom never married, created a plantation they called Sister's Freehold. They imported indentured servants to grow tobacco. Many of the indenturd servants were Protestant, while the colonial landowners and leaders were Catholic. Both class and religious dfferences created tensions in Maryland at the same time England was experiencing a civil war between Parliament and King Charles I.
For a woman to choose to stay unmarried in the early days of the Maryland colony was unusual. Margaret Brent was a rare woman with sufficient wealth and family connections to stay independent.
Even more unusual was Margaret Brent serving as an attorney in Maryland courts for herself, brother Giles, and other landowners in St. Mary's County. In the colonial period, women had to do business through their husbands or a lawyer. Legal transactions were handled only by men - with Margaret Bent as the one exception.
The Brents were able to establish themselves in the local Native American community, as well as with the English gentry in Maryland.
Governor Leonard Calvert, brother of Lord Baltimore, arrived in Maryland in 1634. Within the Piscataway, there was a difference of opinion regarding whether to welcome or repel the colonists. The Piscataway paramount chief ("tayac") Wannas distrusted the new colonists. The tayac's brother, Kittamaquund, was an advocate of using the English as allies. Kittamaquund killed Wannas and assumed the role as tayac.
Kittamaquund wanted English assistance to support Piscataway competition with the Susquehannocks. Both tribes sought to control the trade of furs for guns, metal tools, and prestige items from the English in Maryland and Swedish colonists in Delaware. The colonists wanted peace with the Piscataway, and also their support to provide warning and warriors in case of raids by the Susquehannocks.
A Jesuit priest, Father Andrew White, cured Kittamaquund of an illness in 1639. A year later, Kittamaquund converted to the Catholic faith and was baptised on July 5, 1640. He sent his daughter, called Princess Mary by the colonists, to live with the Brent family. Mary Kittamaquund converted to the Catholic faith in 1641.1
In 1643 Lord Calvert appointed Mary's brother Giles Brent as acting governor of Maryland, even though the Brents had often supprted the colonal legislature and opposed proprietary prerogatives. In 1645 the civil war in England spilled over into Maryland. A Protestant, Richard Ingle, captured St. Mary's City and shipped Giles Brent as a prisoner to England.
Lord Calvert regained control of the colony, but died in 1647 before he paid his supporters. In a unique decision, he appointed Margaret Brent as the executor of his estate even though as a woman she could not vote. Calvert directed her to collect payments due to him and to pay his debts - "take all and pay all." As executor, she requested the right to cast two votes in the colonial assembly that would oversee the distribution of the estate's assets. The men who made all the government decisions, and who preferred to minimize the power of the proprietary governor, rejected her request.
Laonard Calvert's estate was too small to pay all the soldiers who had helped him recapture the colony. To obtain the money needed to pay the soldiers and prevent a mutiny, Margaret Brent sold some of Lord Baltimore's cattle. The act was authorized by her use of Leonard Calvert's power of attorney from Lord Baltimore, and the Maryland General Assembly defended her actions in a message to the proprietor:2
Despite the messaging from colonial leaders, back in England Lord Baltimore remained unhappy that the value of his assets in Maryland had been diminished. Around 1649 Giles, Margaret, and Mary Brent moved to Aquia Creek in Virginia, Giles and Margaret Brent built Virginia plantations in what was at the time Northumberland County. Later, the Virginia Geneal Assembly created new counties and the plantations sites were located in Westmoreland and finally Stafford county.
Margaret Brent named her plantation "Peace."
In Vrginia she retained her ability to serve as an official witness when her brother Giles signed documents, but was unable to attend a Catholic Church because there were none at the time in Virginia. It was officially a royal colony after 1624, and the Anglican Church was the only official religious institution for worship.
The English Civil War led to the execution of King Charles I in 1649 and disruption of the power of the Church of England for the next decade, but Catholics were not officially tolerated by the Puritan leaders who governed Virginia in the 1650's. After the restoration in 1660 of King Charles II , William Berkeley became the new Governor of Virginia. He reaffirmed the Anglican faith as the established church.
Other Roman Catholics migrated across the Potomac River and lived near the Brents. The community they created was tolerated by colonial oficials in Jamestown, in part because the Brents avoided overt display of Catholic worship.
Margaret Brent's sister Mary died in 1658; Margaret Brent inherited her estate. When Margaret Brent died in 1671, she willed her assets to her brother Giles. At the time, the three Brents owned around 10,000 acres of land in Virginia. Their nephew, George Brent, ended up owning 15,000 acres and becoming the only Catholic elcted to the Virginia General Assembly during the colonial period.3