Margaret Brent

Margaret Brent was an English landowner remembered as the first woman that demanded, although without success, the right to vote in an English colony from a Maryland Assembly.

Margaret Brent was born around 1600 into a family of Lord of Admington. Her family belonged to a Roman Catholic faith, and therefore were subjected to religious persecutions during the protestant reign of the Queen Elisabeth I. In order to preserve religion and wealth, she immigrated in 1638 to North America with her sister and two brothers.

Margaret settled in Maryland, where their distant relatives the Calverts were the Catholic ruling family. Margaret brought a land grant, and with her sister she established the “Sisters Freehold”, outside St. Mary’s City. It was the first made to a woman in Maryland. Over the next few years her properties were further augmented through family connections, business dealings and rewards offered for the transportation of more colonists. Except being an independent, propertied woman, by 1657 she became one of the largest landowners in the colony.

Margaret is the first woman recorded that demanded, although without success, the right to vote in an English colony from a Maryland Assembly. Margaret died there in 1671. She has been called North America’s first feminist.