Giles Brent

• General Notes
  • FIRST LADIES OF MARYLAND, 1634-1777, PART 2
    by Robert Barnes
    5. Kittamaquund, first wife of Giles Brent .
    
    Giles Brent served as Governor during Leonard Calvert's absence from Maryland in 1644. His first wife was Kittamaquund, or Kittamquna, later called Mary, possibly born c. 1625/30, daughter of the Emperor of the Piscataway Indians. She was probably the mother of his son Giles, born 1652 and died 1679.
    
    Her father, Kittamaquund ‎("Big Beaver")‎, was a tapac or great chief of the Piscataways at the time the first English settlers arrived in Maryland. By 1639, Father Andrew White had established a mission at the tribal capital, Piscataway, also known as Kittamaquindi, from the name of Kittamaquund, its tapac. On July 5, 1640, Father White in a public ceremony baptized and gave Christian names to the great chief, his wife, and daughter, and then married the chief and his wife. The governor and several of the colonial officers attended this ceremony.
    
    Kittamaquund sent his daughter, newly named Mary, to live in Governor Calvert's household, where her guardianship was shared by Margaret Brent, the sister of Giles Brent. By 1650, the Brents, no longer enjoying the favor of Lord Baltimore, "turned to new strategies to advance their interests." Giles married Mary
    Kittamaquund, the Piscataway Indian, perhaps hoping to gain land or power from her influential father, and moved with her to Virginia in 1650. ‎(Chester Horton Brent. The Brent Family. Rutland [VT]‎: Tuttle Publishing Co, 1946).
    
    The marriage of Mary Kittamaquund and Giles
    Brent probably took place around 1650 and was
    over by 1655, when he married his second wife, Frances Whitgreaves Harrison.   During their marriage, Giles and Mary had at least 3 and possibly 4 children. The 3 generally recognized children are: Richard, named in the will of Margaret Brent but not in the will of his father, so he may have died in his fathers lifetime; Giles Jr.; and Mary, who married Capt. John Fitzherbert by 1673 and died childless
    
    son of Richard Brent, Esq., of Gloucestershire, England, emigrated to Maryland in 1637 and was followed by his brother Fulke and sisters Margaret and Mary. In Maryland he filled the highest offices, was a burgess in 1639, commander of Kent Island in 1640, member of the council in 1642, and in 1643 he was appointed by Gov. Calvert as governor, lieutenant general and admiral, in his absence to England. He was a strong royalist. In 1645 he removed to Virginia where he patented large tracts of land in Stafford county, including the estates of "Peace" and "Richland." He married (first) Mary ---; and (second) Frances Whitgreaves, widow of Dr. Jeremiah Harrison, and daughter of Thomas Whitgreaves who saved the life of Charles Il. at the battle of Worcester. Giles Brent died in 1671.
    IV--Burgesses and Other Prominent Persons
    

Click here for details of Giles' family with Mary Princess Kittamaquund

Click here for details of Giles' family with Frances Whitgreaves Harrison

¹ One World Tree (sm)
² Family Data Collection - Deaths

---

This page is within a frameset. View the entire genealogy report of Brent families, or surname index of Brent pedigrees or report summary of Brent heritage from "My Ancestors and Relatives".
Family Tree Software.

---

© 2006 GenoPro Inc. All Rights Reserved.