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Colonial Settlement Brent Family George Brent Joins his Stafford Family

George Brent Joins his Stafford Family

George Brent, nephew of Giles (I), Margaret, and Mary Brent, joined them in Stafford in 1673. As a young man he was sent from England to reside with them “to learn how to live.” He certainly accomplished this; he later became captain of the Militia, lawyer, attorney general of the Colony, and Stafford representative to the House of Burgesses in Williamsburg . He purchased the island we now call “Government Island” in 1694. It was called Brent’s Island for almost a century and provided stone for colonial America. It stayed in the Brent family from 1694 until Pierre L’Enfant purchased it for the U.S. Government in 1791.