| Bar Bulletin |
August,
2003 |
| MSBA News |
|
Margaret Brent: A
Professional
By Pamela J. White
Author’s
note: Thanks to General Phil Sherman (ret.) for his research and
information.
More than 350 years ago, Margaret Brent provided a great example of
leadership in law in the Maryland colony. The first woman lawyer in
America, Margaret Brent had arrived in the colony in 1638. After settling
in St. Mary’s City, she amassed one of the largest real estate holdings in
the American colonies. Brent was a cousin of Lord Baltimore, the lord
proprietor of colonial Maryland, and she bought up sizable tracts of land
in the colony for herself and her family and later for political and
investment purposes.
Brent’s shrewd intelligence and ability to make and execute deals soon
made her indispensable to the Governor of the colony, Leonard Calvert.
In 1643, with civil war raging in England, Governor Calvert was called
back to England. In his absence, Virginia Protestants had stirred up
resistance to the Catholic colony of Maryland and were able to take
control of the colony. When Leonard Calvert returned, with Margaret
Brent’s help, he was able to raise a force of men to retake St. Mary’s
City. To pay the soldiers, the Governor pledged his estate and that of his
brother, Lord Baltimore. Leonard Calvert died in early 1647. On his
deathbed, the Governor summoned Margaret Brent. In the presence of
witnesses, he directed Margaret to “take all and pay all” as Administrator
of his estate.
Brent was forced to defend a large number of claims against the estate and
to institute actions of her own against those who had been in debt to the
Governor. Over eight years she appeared in 124 reported cases. When it
appeared that Governor Calvert had not left an amount sufficient to pay
the soldiers, Brent realized that she had to pay the troops out of Lord
Baltimore’s property lest there be full-scale riots. Brent made the tough
decision, took the necessary action, paid the hungry troops from the
property of Lord Baltimore and by her brave actions successfully prevented
the threatened mutiny.
An angry Lord Baltimore sent written charges from England against Brent to
the Maryland Assembly, but the Assembly responded to Lord Baltimore:
As for Mistress
Margaret Brent undertaking and meddling with your estate, we do verily
believe and in conscience report that it were better for the Colony’s
safety at that time in her hands than in any man’s else, in the whole
province after your brother’s death: for the soldiers would never have
treated any other with that civility and respect. And though they were
ever ready at several times to run into mutiny, yet she still pacified
them...
She rather deserved
favor and thanks from Your Honor for her so much concurring to the public
safety, than to be justly liable to all those bitter invectives you have
been pleased to express against her.
Margaret Brent was vindicated, but she paid a heavy price for her efforts
when she sought but was denied a voice and vote as a landowner in the
General Assembly, even while the General Assembly had praised her work as
Lord Calvert’s attorney.
Brent believed she had not only a right but a duty as Attorney for the
Governor to have “a vote and voice” in the Maryland Assembly. The records
of Assembly proceedings for 1648 indicated:
Friday 21st January
came Mistress Margaret Brent and requested to have vote in the House for
herself and voice also. . . . It was ordered that the said Mistress Brent
was to be looked upon and received as his Lordship’s Attorney. The
Governor denied that the said Mistress Brent should have any vote in the
House.
In 1656, her duties completed for the Governor’s estate, Brent moved to
Virginia.
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