George Brent
Privacy Level: Open (White)

George Brent (abt. 1640 - aft. 1694)

Captain George Brent
Born about in Englandmap [uncertain]
Ancestors ancestors
Son of and
Brother of , , and
Husband of — married 1670 in Englandmap
Husband of — married 27 Mar 1687 in Colony of Virginiamap
Descendants descendants
Father of , , and
Died after after about age 54 in Woodstock, Stafford County, Colony of Virginiamap
Problems/Questions Profile manager: Magna Carta Project WikiTree private message [send private message]
Profile last modified | Created 2 Aug 2013
This page has been accessed 4,750 times.
Magna Carta Project logo
Magna Carta Gateway Ancestor
Descendant of Surety Barons William Malet, Richard de Clare, and possibly others (see text).
Join: Magna Carta Project
Discuss: magna_carta

Contents

Biography

U.S. Southern Colonies Project logo
George Brent was a Virginia colonist.
flag of the Jamestowne Society
George Brent is a Qualifying Ancestor of the Jamestowne Society
Flag of England
George Brent migrated from England to Colonial America.
Flag of Colonial America

Birth and Parents

Captain George Brent,[1] son of George Brent of Defford, Worcestershire, and his wife Anne, daughter of Sir John Peyton, was born about 1640[2] in England. Crozier refers to him as the "sixth son of George Brent of Cossington, Somerset."[3]

Life in Virginia

Sometime before 1673, George Brent and his family immigrated to Virginia, where he settled at "Woodstock" in Stafford County.[2] The presence of Brents in Virginia had been paved by his aunts Margaret and Mary, and uncles Giles and Fulke, who had immigrated to Maryland in 1638 and subsequently moved to Virginia. See Giles Brent's profile for more information.
George was a merchant, and served as an agent with William Fitzhugh for the Proprietors of the Northern Neck.[2] George Brent acquired 1391 acres on Little Hunting Creek by grant dated 6 November 1677 as headright for 27 people and, the next day, another grant of 1143 acres as headright for 22 (VA Land Recs. vol. 6, page 226). He received 584 acres nearby on 14 December 1677 as headright for 13 (VA Land Recs, vol. 6, page 625).[4]
George Brent was appointed Receiver General, North of the Rappahannock River[3] on 2 May 1683.[5] He was a partner in the law practice of William Fitzhugh. Sometime prior to 1687, George and three others purchased 30,000 acres in Stafford County (now Prince William County) which they called Brenton and, by proclamation dated 10 February 1686/7, King James authorized the purchasers to "freely exercise their religion" (Roman Catholicism).[5] Brentsville, the town they established there, became a refuge for Roman Catholics in the colony.
In 1685 George Brent was "the king's attorney general ...." He was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses from Stafford County for 1688. It was noted in the session of 24 April 1688 that
"The only member who failed to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy -- all took the oath of a burgess -- was George Brent, the former attorney general. This shows that Brent was a Roman Catholic. That he was not, however, abridged in any way of his privileges on this account is amply shown by the Journal, for he took a very prominent part in the proceedings."[6]

Marriages and Children

About 1670, George Brent married Elizabeth Green, the daughter of Capt. William Greene, by Mary Layton.[2][4] Richardson estimates Elizabeth's birth year as 1654/5, making her 15 or 16 at the time of marriage.[2] George and Elizabeth had three sons and two daughters:
  • George,[2][3] died unmarried 2 September 1708[7]
  • Nicholas,[2][3] died 18 December 1711, married Jane Mudd and had no issue[7]
  • Robert,[2][3] went to Bermuda 1701 and married Susannah Seymour[7]
  • Anna Maria[2] or Marianne,[3] eldest daughter,[7] died before 17 February 1685, aged 8 years, buried at Old Acquila Burying Ground[4]
  • Elizabeth,[3] wife of Thomas Longman,[2] and had several children; Eliza died November 1719[7]
Elizabeth died in childbirth 26 March 1686, and was buried in Aquia Cemetery, Stafford County, Virginia.[2]
On 27 March 1687, George married his second wife, Mary Sewell, born 1658/9. She was the widow of Col. William Chandler of Charles County, Maryland and the daughter of Henry Sewall, Secretary of Maryland, by Jane Lowe.[2] Mary is referred to as "the second daughter of Lady Baltimore by her first husband, Henry Sewell",[3] Secretary of Maryland,[4] as her mother, Jane, married Charles Calvert, Lord Baltimore after her father's death. George and Mary's firstborn child, Clara died in infancy on 10 March 1689.[4] They had one son and two daughters:
  • Henry,[2] married Jane Thompson; he died 24 December 1709[7]
  • Mary, married Oswald Neale[2] and had three sons; Mary died in December 1716[7]
  • Martha,[2] died unmarried in April 1715[7]
Mary died in childbirth 12 March 1693/4,[2] aged 35 years.[4]

Death and Burial

Captain George Brent died testate at his Woodstock plantation in Stafford County, Virginia between 1694 and 1700.[2][8]
He is buried in the Brent Family Cemetery in Aquia, Stafford County, Virginia, and is flanked by his two wives, Elizabeth Greene Brent and Mary Sewell Chandler Brent.[9]
His 25-page will, dated 6 April 1694, can be seen in "The Brent Family (Continued)" in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 18, no. 1, 1910, pages 96–100 HERE. Note that about 12 of the pages are missing or damaged.

Sources

  1. ↑ Brent, George - A1103; born 1640, died ca. 1700, Stafford: 1688 (Burgess). accessed 12 September 2021
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 Douglas Richardson. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 4 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham. 2nd edition. Salt Lake City, UT: the author, 2011, vol. I, pages 306-307 BRENT 18.i
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 William Armstrong Crozier. Virginia Heraldica. New York: The Genealogical Association, 1908. Online at Archive.org, pages 20-21.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 W. B. Chilton. "The Brent Family (Continued)," in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, (Virginia Historical Society). Vol. 18, No. 2 (Apr., 1910) pages 224-226, online at JSTOR.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 W. B. Chilton. “The Brent Family (Continued).” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 17, no. 3, 1909, pp. 308–311. Online at JSTOR, accessed 9 Mar 2020.
  6. ↑ McIlwaine, H. R. and J. P. Kennedy, Editors. Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia. 13 Volumes. Richmond, Virginia, 1905-1915. Editors: vols. 1-9, H. R. McIlwaine; v. 10-13, J. P. Kennedy. Vol 2. 1659/60-1693, pages liii, lvi
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 W. B. Chilton. "The Brent Family" in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 12, no. 4, 1905, pages 439–445. Online at JSTOR accessed 9 Mar 2020.
  8. ↑ wikidata says 1699, citing
  9. ↑ Find A Grave, database and images (accessed 8 Mar 2020), memorial page for CPT George Brent (1640–1700), Find A Grave: Memorial #83374488, citing Brent Family Cemetery, Aquia, Stafford County, Virginia, USA; Maintained by Rod (contributor 47372377): unsourced.
  • Richardson, Douglas. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 4 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham. 2nd edition. (Salt Lake City, UT: the author, 2011). See also WikiTree's source page for Magna Carta Ancestry.
  • Richardson, Douglas. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham. (Salt Lake City, UT: the author, 2013). See also WikiTree's source page for Royal Ancestry and vol. I, pages 519-520 BRENT 18.
See also:
  • Meyer, Virginia M. Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607-1624/5. 3rd ed., vol. 1. (Alexandria, VA: Order of the First Families of Virginia, 1987), page 612 (not available online).
  • "Brent" page at Clifton's Collectibles Genealogy. This source primarily uses two sources for information on the Brent family: (1) The Brent Family, by David, M. French, and (2) Descendants of Col. Giles Brent, Captain George Brent and Robert Brent, Gentlemen, Immigrants to Maryland and Virginia, by Chester Horton Brent.
  • Wikipedia: George Brent (politician).
  • Beatriz Betancourt Hardy and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography, "George Brent" at EncyclopediaVirginia.org.

Acknowledgements

Click the Changes tab to see the edits to this profile. Thank you to everyone who contributed.

Magna Carta Project

This profile was re-reviewed and approved for the Magna Carta Project by Thiessen-117 17:55, 9 March 2020 (UTC).
George Brent is listed in Magna Carta Ancestry as a Gateway Ancestor in a Richardson-documented trail to Magna Carta Surety Baron William Malet (vol. I, pages xxiv and 304-307) that was badged by the Magna Carta project in 2015 and re-reviewed by Thiessen-117 on 11 March 2020. Other trails to surety barons Richard de Clare and Robert de Ros were developed in Dec 2019 by Jack Day and were badged in May 2020 by Michael Cayley. All these trails can be viewed in the Magna Carta Trails section of the profile of his uncle, Giles Brent.
See Base Camp for more information about Magna Carta trails. See the project's glossary for project-specific terms, such as a "badged trail".




Sponsored Search by Ancestry.com

DNA
No known carriers of George's DNA have taken a DNA test.

Have you taken a DNA test? If so, login to add it. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA.

Images: 1
George Brent
George Brent


Comments: 5

Leave a message for others who see this profile.
There are no comments yet.
Login to post a comment.
Linda (Noland) Layman
There is interesting information on this man and other Brents in the booklet "Southern Maryland Families" by Raymond B. Clark, Jr., 1987. It is mentioned he was the nephew of Leonard Calvert's wife. It is also mentioned that Mary (Sewall) was the widow of Capt. William Chandler, of Charles Co., and she was the daughter Lady Baltimore by her first husband, Henry Sewall. Noland 588.
posted by Linda (Noland) Layman
Cayley-55 Michael Cayley
Thanks. Although Leonard Calvert's wife has been said by some to be Anne Brent, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Brent-2, aunt of George Brent, evidence suggests strongly this is not true. This is discussed in the research notes on the profiles of both Anne Brent and (more briefly) Leonard Calvert - https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Calvert-24#Suggestion_that_Leonard_married_Anne_Brent. No reliable evidence has yet been found for who Leonard Calvert married, and there have been suggestions that his children may have been illegitimate (see his profile).

The other relationships you mention are referred to in the biography section of this profile.

posted by Michael Cayley
edited by Michael Cayley
Day-1904 Jack Day
The Brents and Calverts have multiple relationships. I was looking for the parents of Henry Brent, who married Anne Calvert, daughter of Governor Leonard, and one source placed him in George and Marianna's family. I have no supporting data for this, so add the link for now, but it needs research to determine whether the link should stay or be undone!
posted by Jack Day

Rejected matches › George Brent › Toni L. Boone

Featured National Park champion connections: George is 12 degrees from Theodore Roosevelt, 18 degrees from Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, 15 degrees from George Catlin, 14 degrees from Marjory Douglas, 20 degrees from Sueko Embrey, 14 degrees from George Grinnell, 22 degrees from Anton Kröller, 15 degrees from Stephen Mather, 17 degrees from Kara McKean, 14 degrees from John Muir, 12 degrees from Victoria Hanover and 23 degrees from Charles Young on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.

B  >  Brent  >  George Brent

Categories: Malet-18 Descendants | Clare-651 Descendants | Ros-149 Descendants | 17th Century, Peyton Name Study | Defford, Worcestershire | Woodstock, Virginia | Magna Carta | Gateway Ancestors | Virginia Colonists | Jamestowne Society Qualifying Ancestors