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.(16) During Leonard Calvert's absence in England, Giles served as deputy Governor.(17)

Giles Brent, brother of Margaret, had preceded his sister to the New World, originally landing at Jamestown, Virginia and then returned to England prior to his arrivial in St. Mary's County in 1638 with his brother Fulke and sisters. Earlier in his life he is referred to as Captain Giles Brent, and later as Col. Giles Brent. Like his sister Margaret, Giles Brent's "life in the colony was closely associated with that of Lord Baltimore's brother, Leonard Calvert, the resident governor."(18) Upon arrival, Giles Brent immediately became a leader of the colony, but financially did not do as well as his sister. In fact, on Oct. 18, 1642. Giles Brent conveyed to Margaret Brent all lands, goods, debts, cattle, and servants for payment of £73 in English money he owes her, plus £40-£60 he owes to his uncle Mr. Richard Reed, 14,000 pounds of tobacco he owes to Mr. William Blunt, 4,000 pounds of tobacco he owes to Mrs. Purfrey of Virginia, plus other smaller debts.(19)
In 1642, Giles Brent turned over his 1000-acre Kent Fort Manor (all the land he had taken up) to his sister Margaret in return for payment of debts he owed: £73 English money owed her; £30 to £40 English money owed to his uncle Mr. Richard Reed; and some large tobacco debts in Virginia. Nevertheless, Carr reports, it is likely that Giles did not cease to manage the Kent Fort Manor so long as he lived in Maryland. As a councillor he needed to act and be seen as a manor lord.


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.(20) Perhaps Margaret Brent's decision was affected by her brother's ambitions. "A statement made forty years later by Leonard Calvert's cousin George Talbot hints at what these might have been. At a conference with William Penn in 1684 at what is now Newcastle, Delaware, Talbot was making the third Lord Baltimore's case for lands that he and William Penn both claimed. Talbot mentioned in passing "Capt Brent who in right of his wife the Piscataway Emperors daughter and only Child pretended a right to the most part of Maryland but could doe noe good on't after a great bustle about it." This comment suggests the origins of Lord Baltimore's wrath against the Brents. The comment may be hearsay based on reports of the Proprietor's fears more than actual actions of Giles or Margaret, but the considerable conflict between Leonard and Giles indicates the Calverts' distrust. (21)