Francis Celestino Brent, the son of Thomas William Brent and Merced Gonzalez, was born in Pensacola 12 May 1848. He joined the Confederate Army when he was sixteen. He returned to Pensacola after the war and eventually went into banking. He was one of the first bankers in Pensacola and was involved in the lumber industry as well. He married Mary Ella Shuttleworth on 9 July 1872 and they had thirteen children. The family lived in town and also had a summer home called (or at) Brentwood. F.C. Brent was known to his children and grandchildren as Papa Brent. He died 13 April 1914 in Pensacola, about eight years after his wife.

F.C. Brent was well known in Pensacola; in the late 19th and early 20th centuries he was very involved in the commercial and banking world of Pensacola and made a great impact on his community. He was also a man of integrity. When his bank had to close, not long before his death, he sold off many of his holdings to make good on the assets of his depositors and shareholders. This aspect of his life and his involvement in banking, lumber and real estate is nicely told by John Appleyard, a Pensacola historian, in a series shown on local television networks in that area called "Reflections of Pensacola History." The segment, Prominent Citizens, on F.C. Brent, can now be seen on youtube. After F.C.'s death, his family continued to make good on the bank's losses.

Mary Ella Shuttleworth, the daughter of William Louis Shuttleworth, a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, and Amanda Brosnaham [Brosnahan], was born in Pensacola 17 July 1852. Her mother died when she was only six years old. She was nearly twenty when she married F.C. Brent. She died from cancer of the jaw when she was only fifty-three and her youngest child was only eleven. Mary Ella and her husband are both buried in St. Michael's Cemetery in Pensacola.

Related Links
Family group sheet for F.C. and Mary Ella Brent
Photograph of F.C. and Mary Ella Brent
Marriage certificate for F.C. Brent and Mary Ella Shuttleworth, 1872
Children of F.C. and Mary Ella Brent
Birth records of Brent children
Death certificate for Francis Celestino Brent
Obituary of Francis Celestino Brent
Scan of newspaper obituary of Francis Celestino Brent
Record of Death of Mary Ella Shuttleworth Brent
Obituary of Mary Ella Shuttleworth Brent
Scan of newspaper obituary of Mary Ella shuttleworth Brent
Gravestone of F.C. and Mary Ella Brent
Shuttleworth Family
Father of Francis Celestino Brent
Siblings of Francis Celestino Brent
The Brent house, the family home of F.C. Brent on La Rua St.
F.C. Brent and his family, Christmas dinner, 1911
Brentwood, the summer home and farm of F.C. Brent on Brent Lane
More photos of Brentwood, the summer home and farm of F.C. Brent on Brent Lane
Photos of old Pensacola, early 1900s