George Brent joins his Stafford Family

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Stafford's First Permanent English Settlers

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.