Margaret Brent

The Original – and American – Iron Lady

By Guest Writer Phillip Londeree

There is no remedy quite so compelling as competence, and few virtues higher than the combination of strength, will, and skill.  These sentiments are not uniquely American, but they are found in abundance in one of the most impressive and accomplished women of early colonial America.  In the seventeenth century, an Iron Lady made her presence known in Maryland more than three hundred years before Britain would see their own.

Maryland was founded as an English colony in 1632.  George Calvert was a Roman Catholic who envisioned a new colony in the English New World that would welcome Catholics, and where religious differences would be tolerated.  After visiting the Americas, he prevailed upon the King to grant him the territory that would become Maryland.  George Calvert was by that time created the 1st Baron Baltimore, named for Baltimore manor in County Longford, Ireland.  Lord Baltimore died before King Charles granted a charter, but his eldest son, Cecil, the 2nd Lord Baltimore, was granted the charter for a new proprietary colony.  This charter made Cecil Calvert subject only to the King, and otherwise empowered him to rule the colony autonomously even though he never resided there.

Only six years later, in 1638, Margaret Brent arrived in Maryland Colony with her sister and two brothers.  She was an unmarried thirty-seven year old Roman Catholic.  Very little is known about Margaret’s life prior to arriving in the New World.  She and her siblings were the children of a minor nobleman, Richard Brent, the Lord of Admington and Lark Stoke.  Their family may have provided financial contributions to Lord Baltimore in exchange for a generous grant of property in Maryland.  

In most of the English colonies in the New World, men outnumbered women by a factor of five or six. Maryland was no exception, and it was unheard of for women to remain unmarried.  Despite this, neither Margaret Brent or her sister ever married.  Instead, Brent established her own household on her own land at Sister’s Freehold, and demonstrated skill and industriousness in several business ventures.  Brent imported and sold indentured servants and raised capital to lend to new settlers, all while managing property that was ultimately more than 2,000 acres.  These ventures were very successful, but inevitably led to legal controversies as she sought to collect debts owed to her businesses and otherwise manage her commercial concerns.

It was unheard of for a woman to prosecute her own legal actions in colonial courts, but Margaret Brent did so with regularity.  She endeared herself to future generations of American lawyers by demonstrating boldness, skill and an iron will in the face of the Colony’s common law traditions.  Brent’s successes led to increases in the amount of land she was granted and growing influence in the colony.  Ultimately, Margaret Brent became an important ally of the Governor appointed by the Lord Baltimore to administer the colony.  Brent went so far as to raise a troop of volunteer soldiers to support Governor Calvert in a dispute with the Virginians.

Unfortunately, the English Civil War would prove a complication to Brent’s endeavors.  In 1645 a Protestant, Richard Ingle, raided the Colony in the name of the Parliamentarians.  The American Colonies uniformly supported the Crown.  Maryland was no exception, and was quickly put in danger of collapse and possible annexation by Virginia as a result of Ingle’s attack.  The great experiment in religious tolerance for which the Maryland Colony is most famous came perilously close to failure.

Leonard Calvert, the Governor of Maryland and Lord Baltimore’s brother, fled the Colony for Virginia in the face of the attack.  Ingle burned the chapels and homes of Roman Catholics, plundered what he could, and carried prisoners back to England – including Giles Brent, Margaret’s own brother and the temporary Acting Governor.  In the wake of the attack, the population of Maryland dropped to fewer than 100 souls.

Governor Calvert did not return to the colony for more than a year.  When he returned, he brought soldiers hired in Virginia to protect Maryland.  These soldiers succeeded in repulsing future raids, but were a significant financial burden on the Colony and came close to staging an armed insurrection when they were not paid timely.  The emergency worsened whenLeonard Calvert died in 1646.  As he lay dying he appointed a new Governor, but made Margaret Brent his executrix, with the instruction to take all the property necessary from his own estate to pay the colony’s costs.

Margaret Brent’s iron will, steadfastness, and diplomatic skills proved to be the necessary elements for Maryland’s survival.  The soldiers hired to defend Maryland were demanding their pay, and threatening to inaugurate a civil war within the Colony.  Food was in short supply.  Disorder began to become commonplace.  The late Governor Calvert had made his entire estate available to pay for these costs, but his estate lacked the assets to make good on the Colony’s debts.  Margaret Brent took these problems in hand, and compelled the Maryland Council to recognize her authority as Executrix for the late Governor.  She also prevailed upon the Provincial Court to also appoint her Attorney-in-Fact for Lord Baltimore, giving her broad and direct authority over Lord Baltimore’s property in the Colony and empowering her to act in Lord Baltimore’s name as his agent.

Using these powers, Margaret Brent liquidated Leonard Calvert’s estate and sold cattle belonging to Lord Baltimore.  The proceeds took care of the most immediate concern; paying the soldiers defending Maryland and making sure that they were fed.

On January 21, 1648, Margaret Brent showed up at a meeting of the Maryland Assembly, at which male landowners were all permitted to vote.  She made clear that in order to execute her duties she expected to vote – twice.  Brent observed that she was both a landowner in her own right, and Lord Baltimore’s attorney, meaning that she fully expected to cast a vote for herself and for Lord Baltimore.  

Brent was ultimately denied the right to cast any votes, and made her displeasure and objections known immediately and clearly.  Some historians credit her with an impressive accomplishment – Margaret Brent may very well have been the first woman in American history to demand the right to vote.  Famously, Brent told the Maryland General Assembly, “I’ve come to seek a voice in this assembly.  And yet because I am a woman, forsooth I must stand idly by and not even have a voice in the framing of your laws.”

Brent appeared before the Assembly on multiple occasions as Lord Baltimore’s Attorney-in-Fact, as she continued to collect his rents, pay his debts, and manage his affairs.  Ultimately, she was replaced as manager of Lord Baltimore’s affairs after Lord Baltimore learned that she had dared to sell some of his property.  It is not clear whether or not Lord Baltimore understood that Brent’s actions saved the Colony from violent collapse.  It is clear that Lord Baltimore was very critical of Brent’s conduct, and made his displeasure known to the Maryland Assembly.

Lord Baltimore’s criticism and hostility towards Brent was so extreme that she and her family left Maryland for Virginia.  There, she entered into the history of that colony as a woman of means and eminence just as she had in Maryland.

In response to Lord Baltimore’s hostility, the Assembly wrote back to him on April 21, 1649 responding to his displeasure with Brent.  That body, which had denied Margaret Brent the right to vote in its deliberations, was nonetheless explicit in defending Brent’s actions.  These men told the Proprietor of Maryland that: “We do verily believe and in conscience report that it was better for the Colony’s safety at that time in her hands than in any man’s else in the whole Province... for the Soldiers would never have treated any other with that civility and respect and though they were even ready at several times to run into mutiny yet she still pacified them... she rather deserved favour and thanks from your Honour for her so much concurring to the public safety than to be justly liable to... bitter invectives.”

Margaret Brent was not a lawyer.  But she is beloved by many American lawyers for her strength and singularity of purpose.  Margaret Brent did not govern a colony.  But she is remembered by history as one who used her legal acumen, skill, and personal strength to save a colony from collapse.  Margaret Brent never voted, and was not a suffragette.  But she stood tall and demanded the right to vote in the execution of her duties, and refused to go quietly when she was denied.  Margaret Brent did not succeed in every endeavor she put her hand to.  But she was honored and defended against unjust criticism even by those who at times opposed her.  She was blessed with the virtues of strength and skill, and she had the iron will to use them.

1. The Charter of Maryland: 1632. Available online: https://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/ma01.asp.

2. The modern city of Baltimore takes its name from the same source.

3. Sparks, Jared (1846). The Library of American Biography: George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown. pp. 16–. Leonard Calvert.

4. W.B. Chilton, The Brent Family, in Genealogies of Virginia Families: From the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. 1981) Vol. 1, pp. 272-273.

5. See Generally: James, Edward T, Editor. Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971.

6. Masson, Margaret W. “Margaret Brent, 1601-1671: Lawyer, Landholder-Entrepreneur.” Notable Maryland Women. Ed. Winifred G. Helmes. Cambridge, MD: Tidewater Publishers, 1977.

7. Appleby, Joyce (2002). Encyclopedia of Women in American History, Volume 1, Colonization, Revolution, and the New Nation, 1585-1820. Armonk, NY: Sharpe Reference. p. 57. ISBN 0-7656-8038-6.

8. Loker, Aleck. “Barristers, Brigands, and Brents: Margaret Brent: Attorney, Adventurer, and America’s First Suffragette.” A Briefe Relation, Historic St. Mary’s City Foundation and Friends Newsletter, Spring 1999.

9. Governor and Council (Proceedings), 1647-1651, liber A, folio 130, MSA S1701-4.

10. Transcription of Assmbly Letter Praising Margaret Brent, Archives of Maryland vol. 1, Proceedings of the General Assembly, Jan. 1637/8-Sept. 1664, p.239; orignial record: GENERAL ASSEMBLY (Upper House) Liber M.C., folio 342, MSA S977-1, 2/20/4/42)