Margaret Brent
Edwin Tunis, Margaret Brent, 1925-35. Collection of the Maryland State Archives.
Margaret Brent was born into a noble family in Gloucestershire, England, in 1601. Her father, Lord Richard Brent, was a member of the landed gentry and the local sheriff, a powerful position. Her mother, Lady Elizabeth Reed, was the daughter of an English lord. They had thirteen children together.
In England, family property passed from a father to his eldest son. This meant that when Richard died, his title, land, and wealth would go to Margaret’s oldest brother. Fathers could leave small amounts of property or money to other children in their wills, but with thirteen children Richard and Elizabeth did not have enough to set every child up for a life of luxury. Most women in Margaret’s position would have gotten married to secure a comfortable life, but Margaret did not.
Margaret’s religious beliefs were another challenge. Officially, the Brents were members of the Church of England, the Protestant state religion headed by the king. Secretly, they were Catholics. Being Catholic was against the law in England, and Catholics were occasionally executed as traitors to the country. In 1628 Margaret’s older sister Catherine moved to Belgium and became a nun, which cast suspicion over the entire family. To escape the scrutiny, Margaret and three of her siblings chose to move to the Maryland colony in the fall of 1638. The Maryland colony was founded by Lord Baltimore in hopes of providing English Catholics a safe place to live, work, and practice their religion.
Because of their social status, Margaret and her siblings received a warm welcome in Maryland. They settled in the colony’s capital, St. Mary’s City. Margaret’s brother Giles received a land grant from Lord Baltimore and was appointed to a leadership position in the colony’s government. Lord Baltimore also granted land to Margaret and her sister Mary. Their status as female landholders was unusual in the English colonies. Under English law, married women were legally covered by their husbands, and could not own and manage their own property. Margaret and Mary never married, so they were able to operate as independent landowners for the rest of their lives. This kind of financial and legal independence was often impossible for women from lower social and economic classes.
As a well-connected, financially secure woman, Margaret found many opportunities to expand her wealth in Maryland. One of the ways Margaret made money was by bringing over indentured servants from England and selling their contracts to other colonists. She also offered loans to new colonists who needed money to establish their farms or businesses. Margaret used her earnings to buy more land. She eventually accumulated about 1,800 acres. Margaret made many court appearances to reclaim debts that other colonists owed her. She was involved in 124 court cases between 1642 and 1650 and won every single case.
Margaret also gained political influence in Maryland. In 1641 Piscataway chief Kittamaquand wanted to establish diplomatic relations with the colony government. He asked Margaret and the governor to raise his daughter Mary as a sign of his sincerity. Margaret and Governor Leonard Calvert were named Mary’s joint guardians, and Margaret soon arranged for the young girl to marry Giles.
She was the first woman in the English colonies to formally request the right to vote.
The Maryland colony was supposed to be a safe haven for English Catholics, but it could not completely escape the religious tensions that were tearing England apart. In 1645 a Protestant ship captain attacked St. Mary’s City in the name of the English Parliament. His soldiers ransacked the homes of Catholic settlers and burned down the Catholic chapel. Giles was captured and taken back to England, and Leonard fled to Virginia. Many colonists moved away after the raid, and the population dwindled from an estimated five to six hundred people to under a hundred. Leonard reclaimed Maryland in late 1646, but he died on June 9, 1647. In his will he named Margaret the executor of his estate, which put her in charge of the entire colony’s finances.
The colony was in bad shape. There was a food shortage, and Leonard had not paid the soldiers who supported his return to power. Realizing the soldiers were on the brink of rebellion, Margaret used the governor’s savings to pay them. But it was not enough. She tried to sell the governor’s land, but she could not do so without Lord Baltimore’s approval and he was far away in London. To save the colony, Margaret asked the court to name her Lord Baltimore’s lawyer, which would give her the power she needed to sell the land and pay the soldiers. Margaret’s quick thinking ultimately saved the settlement.
In January 1648 Margaret took another bold step. She asked the Maryland General Assembly to grant her two votes in the colony’s elections for the legislature. She argued that she should have the right to vote on the colony’s laws because she was Lord Baltimore’s attorney who voted on his behalf, and a landowner. She was the first woman in the English colonies to formally request the right to vote. Her request was denied because no woman had ever been granted the right to vote under English law.
When Lord Baltimore learned that Margaret sold his family’s property to pay the soldiers, he was furious. This is likely why Margaret left Maryland in 1650. She purchased a plantation in the Virginia colony, where she lived until her death in 1671.
Vocabulary
- Catholicism: A Christian religion that is led by the pope in Rome.
- Church of England: Also called the Anglican Church. A Protestant Christian church that is led by the king or queen of England.
- estate: All of the money and property owned by a person.
- executor: Person assigned to carry out the terms of a will.
- indentured servant: A person under contract to work for another person for a definite period of time without pay, usually in exchange for transport to a new place.
- Maryland General Assembly: The governing body in the Maryland colony.
- nun: Woman who dedicates her life to serving the Catholic Church.
- Parliament: The governing body of England.
- Piscataway: An Indigenous community that lived in the Chesapeake Bay region at the time of European contact. Today there is a Piscataway community in Maryland.
- Protestant: The Christian communities that separated from the Catholic Church during the Protestant Reformation.
Discussion Questions
- Why did Margaret Brent move to Maryland? What opportunities did she have in the colony that she did not have in England?
- How did Margaret Brent become a leader of the Maryland colony? What did she do to keep the community a safe place for Catholics?
- What does Margaret Brent’s story reveal about the possibilities for unmarried wealthy white women in the English colonies?
Suggested Activities
- APUSH Connection: 2.3 The Regions of British Colonies
- Include this life story in a lesson about the Maryland colony. Margaret Brent’s story shows the opportunities unmarried wealthy white women had in the colonies and how she helped preserve Maryland as a safe haven for Catholics.
- Pair this life story with Life Story: Lady Frances Berkeley, another English woman of nobility who moved to the American colonies. What do their stories have in common? How did their choice to marry or not marry impact their lives?
- Margaret Brent had a successful business in purchasing and selling contracts of indentured servants. Combine this life story with Life Story: Dennis and Hannah Holland and Life Story: Thomas(ine) Hall to consider the experiences of those who came to the English colonies as indentured servants.
- Compare and contrast Margaret Brent’s life story with those of other wealthy women in the colonies. What opportunities did these women have? How did they establish themselves in the colonies?
- For a larger lesson on women as business owners in the American colonies, teach this resource alongside any of the following:
Themes
POWER AND POLITICS; WORK, LABOR, AND ECONOMY
