Robert Brent, d.1780, was the son of George Brent of Stafford County, Virginia, and Catherine Trimingham of Bermuda. Robert, like other young boys from Catholic families in Maryland and Virginia, had been well educated first at the Bohemia Academy in Maryland and then at St. Omer?s in France, both run by the Jesuits. The family lived at Woodstock, the Brent family home at the upper reaches of Aquia Creek on the Potomac River, a bit south of Alexandria. Being the oldest son, Robert had inherited the family home and lands in Stafford County.

About 1755, Robert married Ann Carroll 1733-1804, the oldest daughter of Daniel Carroll and Eleanor Darnall of Prince George's County, Maryland. Ann was probably well educated as well, her mother, Eleanor Darnall, having been sent overseas to Liege, Belgium, for her education.

Robert died in 1780, but Ann lived until 1804 and was buried in Forest Glen at St. John the Evangelist Cemetery with other Carrolls and Brents. Ann and Robert were the parents of eight children.




Map of Stafford County, site of the Brent family home, "Woodstock," where Robert was born and where Robert and Ann raised their family. Ann Carroll was born and raised in Prince George's County, across and up the Potomac in Maryland.

Ann and Robert were the parents of eight children:

George Brent, 1760-1804, was a colonel in the Stafford County militia; was Lieutenant of Cavalry in Virginia during the Revolutionary War; and fought at the siege of Yorktown; was a Member of the House of Delegates, 1787-1789, Virginia; in 1791 he sold to Pierre L'Enfant 11 acres of Brent's Island, now known as Government Island, to quarry the Aquia freestone used in the White House and other buildings in the District of Columbia. He married Mary Fitzhugh. As the oldest son, he inherited the Woodstock property.


Robert Brent, ca.1763-1819, was appointed Judge of the Orphan?s Court and Paymaster General of the U.S. Army. He is best known for serving as the first mayor of Washington, D.C., seven years under President Jefferson and three under President Madison. He married a first cousin, Mary Young, daughter of Notley Rozier Young and Mary Carroll, his mother's sister. Robert was originally buried at "Brentwood" - his home near present 6th St. & Florida Ave., N.E. - but was later reinterred at St. John the Evangelist Cemetery in Forest Glen, Maryland, where his wife is also buried.








John Brent, ca.1765-1813, married Anne Brent, a second cousin.


Daniel Carroll Brent, ca. 1770-1831, served in the Department of the Treasury, was the Chief Clerk, Department of State and served as U.S. Consul in Paris between 1834 and 1841. He married Eliza Walsh but she died a few years after they married. Their two children, Anne and Robert, also died young. Daniel died in France while serving as the U.S. Consul and was buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery there. After one hundred years his grave, with the upkeep no longer paid for, was removed.







Thomas Brent, d.1795,


Eleanor Brent


Catherine Brent, 1774-1837, married George Digges in 1789. They lived at Warburton Manor, the Digges family home in Prince George's County, Maryland. George was a landowner and planter and also a delegate to the Maryland Assembly for Prince George's County. After his death in 1792, Catherine built another house, Green Hill, where she and her two children lived. After her son married, he and his wife lived at Green Hill. It was here that Pierre L'Enfant, the French designer of Washington D.C. died penniless. He was buried at Green Hill but later re-interred at Arlington National Cemetery. Catherine, her son William Dudley and his wife Eleanor "Norah" Carroll were all buried at St. John the Evangelist Cemetery, the Carroll family cemetery at Forest Glen, Maryland, as was her daughter, Anna Maria Digges Livingston.


Col. William Brent, 1775-1848, born at Woodstock, the Brent family home in Aquia, Stafford County, Virginia, was the last child of Robert and Ann Carroll Brent. He was married first to Catherine Walker Johnson, daughter of Thomas Johnson Jr. and, after her death in 1822, married Elizabeth Neale in 1825, daughter of Edward Neale. My line descends through the oldest child of William Brent and Catherine Walker Johnson, Thomas William Brent, 1808-1875.

Related links:
The Carroll family of Upper Marlboro, Maryland
Eleanor Darnall Carroll, 1703-1796
Descendant report for the Keane Carroll family of Ireland and Maryland, with index & sources
The Brent family of Stafford County, Virginia, Washington D.C. and Pensacola, Florida
Descendant report for Richard Brent, d.1587, and Elizabeth Reed, with index & sources
Col. William Brent, 1775-1848, biographical sketch
Gravestone of Ann Carroll Brent, 1733-1804
St. John the Evangelist Cemetery in Forest Glen, Maryland, where Ann Carroll, some of her children and many Brents and Carrolls are buried
The Brent family cemetery at Woodstock Plantation, Aquia, Virginia, where Robert Brent is most likely buried
The Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris where Daniel Carroll Brent and his niece, Elizabeth Carroll Brent, first wife of Henry Johnson Brent, son of Col. William Brent, were buried