Mary Brent

Biography

Extracted from https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Kittamaquund-1#Burial_at_Aquia

The daughter of Kittamaquund who would one day be named Mary was apparently less than a year old when the Ark and Dove arrived on Maryland's shores. She was a daughter of Kittamaquund, who was Tapac, or Tayac, of the Piscataway nation when the first English settlers arrived on the Ark and the Dove on March 25, 1634.

Mary Kittamaquund is usually said to have been born c. 1633/4(1), based on the estimation of her age by an unnamed Catholic missionary who related the story of the 15th of February, 1640 when "the King brought his daughter, seven years old, (whom he loves with great affection,) to be educated among the English at St. Mary's."[1] [2]

In St. Mary's, Mary Kittimaquund became the ward of Governor Leonard Calvert and Margaret Brent as joint guardians, spending her time primarily in the home of Margaret Brent. Leonard Calvert's wife is believed by some sources to be Anne Brent, sister of Margaret. Margaret Brent had arrived in Maryland November 22, 1638 on board the ship Elizabeth with her sister Mary and their brothers Giles. [5]

Carr reports that "sometime between May 8, 1644 and January 7, 1644/5(15)," Giles Brent married [Mary Kittimaquund], a little girl of 10 or 11 at the time...This event probably occurred before October, 1644, when Leonard Calvert returned from England, where he had gone in the spring of 1643 to confer with his brother, the Lord Baltimore. [9] During Leonard Calvert's absence in England, Giles served as deputy Governor. [10]

Why Margaret Brent permitted such a marriage between her 11 year old ward and her brother 30 years Mary's senior is unknown; because Giles thereby acquired possible claims to the Piscataway property of Mary's father, in competition to Lord Baltimore's claim, the union was an irritant to Lord Baltimore in subsequent years. Carr notes "it is hard to believe that, if present, Leonard Calvert would have agreed to the marriage, given subsequent events. During the weeks after his return but before Ingle attacked, the court records show him in bitter conflict with Giles. Indeed, not long before Ingle's raid, the Governor ordered the St. Mary's County sheriff to "arrest the Body of Giles Brent Esq, and keepe him in safe custody in the house of John Cook in St Georges hundred, untill I shall call him to make answer to severall crimes agst the dignity & dominion of the right horle the Lord Proprietary of this Province." On the other hand, a few days later, Brent was sitting as a justice again.

These are the three documented children:

1. Giles, born 5 April 1652 and named in both the 1663 will of his aunt and the 1771 will of his father.
2. Richard Brent, who died young, presumably between Margaret's 1663 will and Giles' 1771 will.
3. Mary, named in both the 1663 will of her aunt and the 1771 will of her father, who married John Fitzherbert

It looks like Katherine Marsham was not her daughter.

In 1654 Mrs. Frances Harrison, widow, patented 1000 acres in Westmoreland County, Virginia, and about the same time John Harrison patented a thousand acres in the same county, failing his heirs to his sister, Mrs Frances Harrison, and failing her heirs to Giles Brent of "Peace" in the same County. Mrs. Harrison became the wife of Col. Giles Brent, (His second wife) but it appears that she died and had no issue by either marriage [19]

Burial at Aquia

Giles, Margaret, and Mary were all buried in the Brent Cemetery at Aquia which can be visited. Some say that Mary Kittamaquund died in late 1654. Other local historians and tradition say that she separated from Giles, then continued to live with Margaret and Mary and others and did not die until about 1700. [20]

The Piscattoways were one of the smaller tribes of Indians, and their “empress” had married Giles Brent of Maryland

https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=SY52AAAAMAAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA18

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Piscataway Indian = https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Brent_Giles_ca_1652-1679?fbcli...

Mary (Kittamaquund) Brent, daughter of the Tayac (Paramount Chief) of the Piscataway Indians, was born in Maryland probably about 1631.[i] Her father ruled over as many as 7,000 people between the Potomac and Patuxent Rivers

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Father Andrew White, a Catholic priest who arrived with Calvert in 1634 on the Ark and the Dove, baptized Kittamaquund, chieftain of the local Piscataway Indians, and his wife and daughters. in 1640. One daughter, who took the name of Mary at her baptism, went to live with Margaret Brent and married Margaret’s brother, Giles Brent. Brent used the marriage to claim lands that had belonged to the Piscataway, including lands in Virginia on Aquia Creek. Father White spent several weeks with the Patawomeck Indians in the winter of 1641-2. In his annual letter to his superiors for 1642 he wrote: “During a detention of nine weeks at Potomac town, his spiritual gain in souls fully compensated for the delay. For, during that time, there was an accession to the church, of the chief of the town, with the principal inhabitants. Also a chief of another tribe, with many of his followers; a third, with his wife, son and one of his people, and a fourth chieftain, with a companion of high rank among his own people. “ Father White's letter is the only documentation for the events with the Patawomeck and you will note that there are no names given for any of these people.

From < “The Legend of Katherine Brent Marsham” > An Analysis by Jackson Day, March 29, 2015

• DNA Analysis is a new field. In publishing their work on Princess Mary Kittamaquund and her Daughters, the Potters have offered up their DNA analysis for review by experts in the field. Quite apart from their historical arguments, what are the strengths and weaknesses, as well as correct and erroneous conclusions of their DNA analysis? The Potters' previous attempt to show a relationship between Katherine and the Brents via Edmund Brent suggests that they began their research with a desired conclusion. To what extent can such a research bias skew the results of a DNA study? Such an analysis will be of increasing importance and the Potters may have usefully offered up an important case study.
• Assuming that the Potters' DNA analysis is correct, but rejecting the thesis that the analysis proves descent of Katherine Marsham's and Mary Beaven's descendants from Mary Kittamaquund, the question of what relationship they actually had remains unanswered.

  ---

From https://dna-explained.com/2014/03/04/daughters-of-princess-mary-kit...

Mary married Giles Brent, brother of Margaret Brent, before January 9, 1644/5.[v] A band of Parliamentarians led by Richard Ingle and William Claiborne attacked St Mary’s City on February 14, 1644/5, and carried Giles Brent, Father Andrew White, and others in chains to England. Upon his arrival in London, Giles brought suit against his captors and returned to Maryland before June 19, 1647.[vi] Mary and Giles moved to present day Aquia, Stafford County, Virginia, after November 8, 1648, and before August 20, 1651.[vii] Mary died probably after April 18, 1654, and before September 4, 1655.[viii] Giles Brent died in Middlesex County, Virginia, on September 2, 1679.[ix]

Scholars disagree about the number of children born to Mary Kittamaquund and Giles Brent. Some list only three children named in the 1663 and 1671 wills of sister and brother Margaret and Giles Brent.[x] Margaret appointed her brother Giles “and his children Giles Brent, Mary Brent, and Richard Brent” executors of her estate.[xi] Giles left bequests to his son Giles Brent and daughter Mary Fitzherbert.[xii] Other historians, such as Dr. Lois Green Carr, Maryland Historian at the Maryland State Archives, on the basis of information gleaned from provincial court records, probate records, and quitrent rolls, identify six children of Mary and Giles, including Katherine Brent (who married Richard Marsham), Giles Brent (who married his cousin Mary Brent), Mary Brent (who married John Fitzherbert), Richard Brent (who died after December 26, 1663), Henry Brent (who died young), and Margaret Brent (who also died young).[xiii]

Recent DNA analysis, however, reveals six descendants of Katherine and Richard Marsham and three descendants of Mary and Charles Beaven, representing six separate lineages, inherited at least sixteen matching segments of Native American DNA on chromosomes 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 15, 16, 20, and 22. ...

.... Considering this DNA evidence in light of contemporary records, it now seems certain Mary Kittamaquund and Giles Brent were the parents of Katherine, wife of Richard Marsham, and Mary, wife first of John Fitzherbert and second of Charles Beaven.

References

• From Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd Edition, 2011, by Douglas Richardson: Mary Brent, married (as his 1st wife) Giles Brent, son of [Col.] Giles Bent, by his 1st wife, Kittamaquund. He was born 5 April 1652. He married (2nd) Frances Hammersley. Giles Brent died at Middlesex County, Virginia, 2 Sept. 1679 Source: *VMHB 12 (1905): 439-445 *Gens. of Virginia Fams from VMHB 1 (1981): 233-428
• http://vagenweb.org/stafford//tricent.htm#Souvenir
• “Daughters of Princess Mary Kittamaquund.” Posted on March 4, 2014. < DNAeXplained – Genetic Genealogy >