Information Panel: The Remarkable Margaret Brent

Margaret Brent Memorial and wayside

NPS / Claire Hassler

Quick Facts

Amenities

2 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Tactile Exhibit

Landowner, Lawyer Suffragette

Despite occasional conflicts between European settlers and local Indians, Mistress Margaret Brent of Saint Mary's City, Maryland, was granted the first land patent on Piper's Island (later known as Jones Point) in 1654. An extraordinary woman for her time, Brent appears here before the Maryland Assembly requesting not only the right to vote, but the right to two votes - one for herself as a landowner and one as Lord Baltimore's attorney.

Tobacco Farming

To hold title to her land, Brent was required to cut back the forest and plant tobacco. On most plantations, indentured servants and enslaved African Americans performed the arduous labor.

"Brents understanding and medling with your Lordships Estate here... we do Verily Believe and in Conscience report that it was better for the Collonys safety at that time in her hands then in any mans else in the whole Province..."

Letter from the Maryland Assembly, describing Brent's management of Lord Baltimore's will, 1649.

Daughters of the American Revolution Plaque

On September 6, 1654, this site was included in a patent of 700 acres granted by the Colony of Virginia to Mistress Margaret Brent (c. 1601 - c. 1671)

An extraordinary woman, she spent most of her adult life fighting discrimination of her sex. She was the first private owner of the rectangular tract of land on the Potomac River above Hunting Creek that became the nucleus of Alexandria.

Erected by the Mount Vernon Charter, Daughters of the American Revolution. 1878(?)