William Leigh Brent— (February 20, 1784July 7, 1848) was a lawyer and plantation owner in
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
and
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
, and three-term
U.S. Representative
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...
representing
Louisiana's 3rd congressional district
Louisiana's 3rd congressional district is a United States congressional district in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The district covers the southwestern and south central portion of the state, ranging from the Texas border to the Atchafalaya River. ...
.
Early and family life
Brent was born at
Port Tobacco
Port Tobacco, officially Port Tobacco Village, is a town in Charles County, in southern Maryland, United States. The population was 13 at the 2010 census, making Port Tobacco the smallest incorporated town in Maryland.
Overview
This was historical ...
,
Charles County, Maryland
Charles County is a county in Southern Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the population was 166,617. The county seat is La Plata. The county was named for Charles Calvert (1637–1715), third Baron Baltimore. Charles County is part of the Wash ...
, on February 20, 1784, the first child of Robert Brent (1759–1810) and Dorothy Leigh Brent. His father's family (including lawyer/nun
Margaret Brent
Margaret Brent (c. 1601 – c. 1671), was an English immigrant to the Colony of Maryland, settled in its new capitol, St. Mary's City, Maryland. She was the first woman in the English North American colonies to appear before a court of the ...
) had owned land in that area of Maryland since about 1640, but some had fled to Virginia before the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
. His maternal grandfather, William Leigh, owned St. Bernards, a plantation near the Port Tobacco River at
Pomonkey, which he gave to Robert and Dorothy when they married.
Robert Brent built a house which he named Brentfield (the manor house which later burnt to the ground was about a mile from
Bel Alton, Maryland). However, because William Leigh Brent married a local heiress, his father secured William's consent to leaving it to his younger brother, George Brent (1817–1881), who became a Judge of Maryland's Seventh Judicial District and of the Circuit Court of Appeals. Virginia congressman and Senator
Richard Brent (1757–1814) was a paternal cousin. Another paternal cousin was
Robert Brent (1764–1819), who became the first mayor of Washington, D.C., and freed his slaves in his will.
William Leigh Brent studied law and was admitted to the bar of
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
. In 1809 he married his first cousin Maria Fenwick (daughter of Col. James Fenwick and Teresa Brent), with whom he would have nine children (as discussed in the Legacy section below).
Career
William Leigh Brent and his new wife soon moved to Louisiana, where Brent began his legal career. President
James Madison
James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...
named him Deputy Attorney General for the western district of the
Territory of Orleans
The Territory of Orleans or Orleans Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from October 1, 1804, until April 30, 1812, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Louisiana.
History
In 1804, ...
. After the international slave trade became illegal, many Maryland and Virginia-born enslaved people were shipped through Port Tobacco to the sugar plantations of Louisiana; prosecuting fugitive slave cases was part of his job.
In 1822 Brent was elected as an
Adams-Clay Republican
The National Republican Party, also known as the Anti-Jacksonian Party or simply Republicans, was a political party in the United States that evolved from a conservative-leaning faction of the Democratic-Republican Party that supported John Qu ...
to the
Eighteenth Congress and moved to Washington, D.C. The following year, his father-in-law died and he and Maria inherited an estate called Pomonkey on the creek of the same name near a village called Fenwick. W.L. Brent remained in Washington and Maryland until 1844, when he returned to Louisiana. He was Louisiana's representative in Congress from March 4, 1823, until March 3, 1829, having been elected as an
Adams Republican to the
Nineteenth, and
Twentieth Congresses.
Representative Brent was a founding member of Louisiana's
Whig Party, but was not again a candidate for public office. His successor was
Jacksonian Democrat
Jacksonian democracy was a 19th-century political philosophy in the United States that expanded suffrage to most white men over the age of 21, and restructured a number of federal institutions. Originating with the seventh U.S. president, Andr ...
General
Walter Hampden Overton
Walter Hampden Overton (1788December 24, 1845) was a U.S. Representative representing Louisiana's 3rd congressional district.
Personal life
He was born near Louisa Court House, Virginia in 1788. His father Thomas Overton moved the family t ...
, whose family had moved from Virginia when he was young, who became a war hero at the
Battle of New Orleans
The Battle of New Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815 between the British Army under Major General Sir Edward Pakenham and the United States Army under Brevet Major General Andrew Jackson, roughly 5 miles (8 km) southeast of the French ...
and whose daughter married one of W.L. Brent's sons.
As his political career ended, Brent resumed the practice of law in Louisiana and in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
Death and legacy
Brent died in
St. Martinville, Louisiana
St. Martinville (french: Saint-Martin)Jack A. Reynolds. "St. Martinville" entry i"Louisiana Placenames of Romance Origin."LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses #7852. 1942. p. 480. is a city in and the parish seat of St. Martin Parish, Louisiana ...
, on July 7, 1848. He is buried in St. Martin's Catholic Cemetery. An inscription on his gravestone indicates his especial popularity with the
Acadian
The Acadians (french: Acadiens , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Most Acadians live in the region of Acadia, as it is the region where the de ...
population of Teche Bayou in St. Martin Parish.
Four of their sons became lawyers and politicians. Their eldest son
Robert James Brent
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
(1811–1872) remained in Maryland, having married Matilda Lawrence of
Hagerstown, Maryland
Hagerstown is a city in Washington County, Maryland,
United States and the county seat of Washington County. The population of Hagerstown city proper at the 2020 census was 43,527, and the population of the Hagerstown metropolitan area (exten ...
. He practiced law in
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
and
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, and was the last Attorney General under the Maryland constitution replaced in 1851 (that Brent having helped to legislate himself out of what had been a lifetime office). Another son, James Fenwick Brent (1814–1847) became a prominent lawyer in Louisiana, and married the daughter of General
Walter Hampden Overton
Walter Hampden Overton (1788December 24, 1845) was a U.S. Representative representing Louisiana's 3rd congressional district.
Personal life
He was born near Louisa Court House, Virginia in 1788. His father Thomas Overton moved the family t ...
. He predeceased his father (and within two years of serving as a delegate to Louisiana's constitutional convention of 1845). Another son,
Joseph Lancaster Brent
Joseph Lancaster Brent (November 30, 1826 November 27, 1905) was a lawyer and politician in California, Louisiana and Maryland and a brigadier general in the Confederate army.
Personal
Joseph Lancaster Brent was born on November 30, 1826, in P ...
(1826–1905), became a lawyer after studying at
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...
, married a Louisiana heiress, served two terms in the California legislature, then returned to serve in the Confederate Army as Major (rising to the rank of Brigadier General). After the American Civil War, Joseph L. Brent returned to Louisiana to manage his wife's estates and served two terms in the Louisiana legislature. The youngest son, Charles Vivian Brent (1831–1906) was born at Pomonkey and married a daughter of Maryland Senator
William D. Merrick (his uncle George marrying another of Merrick's daughters). Although their children died young, C.V. Brent edited the ''Southern Maryland Independent'' newspaper as well as practiced law with his elder brother Robert in Baltimore. C.V. Brent also served in Maryland's post-war Constitutional Convention, and then was a lawyer in the
Interior Department
An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs.
Lists of current ministries of internal affairs
Named "ministry"
* Ministry ...
until his death in
Georgetown.
[French pp. 85-86]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brent, William Leigh
1784 births
1848 deaths
People from Port Tobacco Village, Maryland
American people of English descent
Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana
National Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana
Louisiana Whigs
Maryland lawyers
19th-century American lawyers