George Brent | |
---|---|
Member of the VirginiaHouseofDelegates from the Stafford County district | |
In office May 1, 1688 –1689 Servingwith George Mason II | |
Preceded by | Samuel Hayward |
Succeeded by | Martin Scarlett |
Acting Attorney General for the Virginia colony | |
In office after November 16,1686 –before May 1,1688 | |
Preceded by | Edward Hill |
Succeeded by | Edmund Jenings |
Personal details | |
Born | c. 1640 Warwickshire,England |
Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Greene Mary Chandler |
Children | 4 |
Residence | Woodstock |
Occupation | Planter,lawyer,militia leader |
George Brent (died circa 1699),was a colonial Virginia planter,lawyer,and politician. He represented Stafford County,Virginia in the Virginia General Assembly and secured a refuge for Catholics in the Virginia Colony that became Brentsville,Virginia. [1]
Brent was the firstborn son of George Brent and Marianna,the daughter of Sir John Peyton of Doddington on the Isle of Ely. [2] Facing persecution during the English Civil Wars because of their Catholic religion (a sister was a nun in France),his uncle Giles Brent (third son of Richard Brent) and maiden aunts Mary and Margaret Brent had emigrated to Maryland in 1637. However,in the next decade they encountered problems a from rival Protestant trader Richard Ingle as well as the colonial Maryland political establishment,and emigrated across the Potomac River to Stafford County,Virginia.
Brent emigrated to join his older relatives,and built a plantation at Woodstock,near the plantations they had established. His first wife,Elizabeth Greene of Bermuda,whom he married in 1677,died giving birth to a daughter in 1686. He then married Mary,the widow of Col. William Chandler. She already had several children (one son became a Benedictine priest),and had more with Brent,but only Henry,Mary and Martha lived. Their mother Mary Brent died in 1693 or 1694 giving birth to their last daughter. [3]
A document from December 1670 indicates Brent was already practicing law in the colony (representing a haberdasher in a debt action). By 1686,George Brent was the interim King's attorney (prosecutor) for the Virginia colony. As King's attorney,Brent also once sued his fellow lawyer and sometimes business partner William Fitzhugh,as discussed below,for unpaid tobacco taxes. Brent served for about two years until promoted to the House of Burgesses. [4]
George Brent was sometimes referred to as "Captain" or "Major" Brent (as was his cousin Giles Brent) or "George Brent of Woodstock" (as would be some descendants) because he was partly responsible for local defense of Virginia's Northern Neck and later areas westward toward the Blue Ridge Mountains. In 1675 George Brent and George Mason II led the militia response to the death of a colonist by Indian raiders;their raid against what turned out to be peaceable Doeg Indians (who were murdered) was a prelude to Bacon's rebellion the following year,and expulsion of most native peoples from the coastal region. [5] Around 1681,Brent and William Fitzhugh provisioned forts near the Potomac River against Indian raids. In 1684,Brent led an expedition to defend Rappahannock River settlements against Seneca raiders. In 1690 Brent (until his death) and William Fitzhugh succeeded Col. Ludwell as rangers general,as well as agents for the proprietors of the Northern Neck (Thomas Culpeper and later Lord Fairfax). [6] [7]
In April 1688 Brent became one of the delegates representing Stafford County in the House of Burgesses(the predecessor of the Virginia General Assembly). [8] The only Catholic in that body,he was allowed to take the Oath of a Burgess without the Oath of Supremacy. [9] [10] However,the following year,rumors spread by a Protestant parson stoked fears that Brent was helping Indians attack colonists,and he was forced to seek refuge with William Fitzhugh against the unruly mob,although the accusation was soon quashed. [11]
After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes,Huguenot refugees arrived in England by 1685. London notary public Nicholas Hayward thought they would be ideal immigrants for the Virginia colony. On February 10,1686/7,King James II issued a charter to George Brent,and merchants Richard Foote and Robert Bristow of London (which Hayward notarized) awarding the four-man company 30,000 acres (which the King purchased from Lord Thomas Culpeper). The document showed the royal intent that the inhabitants would be free to exercise "their Religion without being prosecuted or molested upon any penall law or othe–r account for the same ... provided they behaved themselves in all Civill matters so as to become peaceable and Loyall subjects." [12]
By 1688,George Brent had a road cut to Brent Town (later Brentsville,Virginia). A block house for protection during Indian raids was erected overlooking a major military and trading route. When Hayward's plan to send Huguenots failed by the following year (and Protestant William III and Mary II succeeded the deposed Catholic James II leading to anti-Catholic persecutions),Brent decided the tract could be a refuge for Catholics. [13]
Brent died in 1699. His will written in 1694 was admitted to probate on September 1,1700. Most of his vast landholdings (about 15,000 acres) including Woodstock passed to his firstborn son (also George),then grandson (also George). The circa 2000 acres of Brent Town later passed to his grandson (also George) and in 1804 to Daniel Carroll Brent,a distant cousin. [14] In 1742,residents of Brent Town petitioned the House of Burgesses,indicating that the village existed on a section by then owned by descendants of Richard Foote near the tract's western edge. [15]
Brent was buried in the family cemetery,now near St. William of York parish and owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Arlington. Since 1930,a large crucifix has stood nearby,next to historic Route 1,honoring the area's first Catholic settlers and their role in establishing religious liberty in Virginia. [16] [17]
Leonard Calvert was the first proprietary governor of the Province of Maryland. He was the second son of The 1st Baron Baltimore (1579–1632),the first proprietor of Maryland. His elder brother Cecil (1605–1675),who inherited the colony and the title upon the death of their father George,April 15,1632,appointed Leonard as governor of the Colony in his absence.
William Fitzhugh was an American planter,legislator and patriot during the American Revolutionary War who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress for Virginia in 1779,as well as many terms in the House of Burgesses and both houses of the Virginia General Assembly following the Commonwealth's formation. His Stafford County home,Chatham Manor,is on the National Register for Historic Places and serves as the National Park Service Headquarters for the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.
William Randolph I was an English-born planter,merchant and politician in colonial Virginia who played an important role in the development of the colony. Born in Moreton Morrell,Warwickshire,Randolph moved to the colony of Virginia sometime between 1669 and 1673,and married Mary Isham a few years later. His descendants include many prominent individuals including Thomas Jefferson,John Marshall,Paschal Beverly Randolph,Robert E. Lee,Peyton Randolph,Edmund Randolph,John Randolph of Roanoke,George W. Randolph,and Edmund Ruffin. Due to his and Mary's many progeny and marital alliances,they have been referred to as "the Adam and Eve of Virginia".
Richard Brent was an American planter,lawyer,and politician who represented Virginia in both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate,and at various times Fairfax,Prince William and Stafford counties as he served at various times in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly.
Brentsville is a Hamlet in Prince William County,Virginia,United States.
Margaret Brent,was an English immigrant to the Colony of Maryland,settled in its new capitol,St. Mary's City,Maryland. She was the first woman in the English North American colonies to appear before a court of the common law. She was a significant founding settler in the early histories of the colonies of Maryland and Virginia. Leonard Calvert,Governor of the Maryland Colony,appointed her as the executrix of his estate in 1647,at a time of political turmoil and risk to the future of the settlement. She helped ensure soldiers were paid and given food to keep their loyalty to the colony,thereby very likely having saved the colony from violent mutiny,although her actions were taken negatively by the absentee colonial proprietor in England,Cecil Calvert,the second Lord Baltimore,and so ultimately she paid a great price for her efforts and was forced to leave the colony.
Col. Isaac Allerton Jr. was planter,military officer,politician and merchant in colonial America. Like his father,he first traded in New England,and after his father's death,in Virginia. There,he served on the Governor's Council (1687-1691) and for many years in the House of Burgesses,representing Northumberland County and later Westmoreland County.
Capt. Henry Lee I (1691–1747) was a prominent Virginia colonist,planter,soldier and bureaucrat. Although today known mostly for his family connections below.
Colonel Joshua Fry (1699–1754) was an English-born American adventurer who became a professor,then real estate investor and local official in the colony of Virginia. Although he served several terms in the House of Burgesses,he may be best known as a surveyor and cartographer who collaborated with Peter Jefferson,the father of future U.S. president Thomas Jefferson. After Fry’s death on a military expedition,George Washington became commanding officer of the Virginia Regiment,a key unit in what became the French and Indian War.
William Henry Fitzhugh was Virginia planter and politician who served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly,as well as in the Virginia constitutional convention of 1829–1830 and as an officer of the American Colonization Society.
Colonel Nicholas Spencer,Jr. (1633–1689) was a merchant,planter and politician in colonial Virginia. Born in Cople,Bedfordshire,Spencer migrated to the Westmoreland County,Virginia,where he became a planter and which he twice briefly represented in the Virginia House of Burgesses. Spencer later served as the colony's Secretary and on teh Governor's Council,rising to become it President and on the departure of his cousin Thomas Colepeper,2nd Baron Colepeper in 1683,was named Acting Governor (1683–84),in which capacity Spencer served until the arrival of Governor Lord Howard of Effingham. Spencer's role as agent for the Culpepers helped him and his cousin Lt. Col. John Washington,ancestor of George Washington,secure the patent for their joint land grant of the Mount Vernon estate.
Nicholas Battaile Fitzhugh was a Virginia lawyer and politician who became a United States circuit judge of the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia after representing Fairfax County in the Virginia House of Delegates.
George Mason I was the American progenitor of the prominent American landholding and political Mason family. Mason was the great-grandfather of George Mason IV,a Founding Father of the United States.
George Mason II (1660–1716) was an early American planter and officeholder who,although his father's only child,had many children and thus can be said to have established the Mason family as one of the First Families of Virginia. His grandson George Mason IV became the most distinguished member of the family,a Founding Father of the United States.
Mary Kittamaquund,daughter of the Piscataway chieftain Kittamaquund,helped establish peaceful relations between English immigrants to the Maryland and Virginia Colonies and their native peoples.
William Kendall Sr. (I) (1621-1686) was a British merchant,planter,military officer and politician who came to own considerable land on Virginia's Eastern Shore. He represented Northampton County several times before and after Bacon's Rebellion,and during 1685 became the 21st Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses while representing Accomack County.
Rice Hooe was the name of three Virginia colonists,two of whom served in the colonial House of Burgesses,and became ancestors of a family of planters important in northern Virginia and southern Maryland. Their descendants Alexander Hooe,Bernard Hooe Jr.,James Hooe,two named John Hooe as well as John Hooe Jr.,and William Hooe would all serve in the Virginia General Assembly before the American Civil War.
Henry Fitzhugh was an American planter who served a term in the House of Burgesses and whose portrait was painted by John Heselius.
Henry Fitzhugh was an American planter and soldier who served two terms in the House of Burgesses representing then-vast Stafford County and was an unsuccessful candidate for Speaker.
Edward Digges was a Virginia merchant,planter and politician who represented York County in the House of Burgesses.
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