The Brent family crest. There are no known images of Giles Brent.
Giles Brent (1600-1672)
Giles Brent was an English Catholic colonist who became a prominent figure in early Maryland.
Brent does not receive as much attention as his more famous sister, Margaret Brent, but he played a significant role in Maryland's early development.
Giles Brent was the youngest son of Sir Richard Brent, Lord of Lark Stoke and Admington in Gloucestershire, England. We know little about his early life until he arrived in Maryland in 1638 with his brother and two sisters.
Brent’s family became close to Governor Leonard Calvert, and soon Brent was one of the colony's political and economic leaders. Brent settled on Kent Island, where he developed a large plantation.
Brent held many leadership positions in Maryland, including Councilor, Treasurer, Commander of Kent Island, judge, and burgess. For a brief period in 1643 and 1644, when Leonard Calvert returned to England, Brent served as Deputy Governor of the colony. Brent’s success and leadership in Maryland, however, was limited.
Giles Brent's problems began when he refused to lead the settlers of Kent Island against the local Matapeake people who had been attacking Maryland settlements. He further angered the proprietors (the Calverts, who owned Maryland) when he married Mary Kittamaquund, ten-year-old daughter of Kittamaquund, the tayak of the Piscataway tribe.
The Calverts believed that Brent had married the Piscataway princess in hopes of gaining control of more Piscataway 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. Brent was eventually charged with disloyalty and forced to migrate to Virginia. In 1649, he moved with his sister Margaret. Giles Brent died in 1672.
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Sources:
Maloney, E. J. (1996). Papists and Puritans in early Maryland: Religion in the forging of provincial society, 1632–1665 (Publication No. 9637195) [Doctoral dissertation, State University of New York at Stony Brook]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.
Papenfuse, E. C., Day, A. F., Jordan, D. W., & Stiverson, G. A. (1979). A biographical dictionary of the Maryland legislature, 1635–1789: Vol. 1. A–H. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Riordan, T. B. (2004). The plundering time: Maryland in the English Civil War, 1642–1650. Maryland Center for History and Culture.
Carr, L. G. (n.d.). Notes on Margaret Brent—Historic St. Mary's City Commission.