Margaret Brent - Maryland's First Female Lawyer

[. . .] I’d like to think that I am continuing to follow the example set 370 years ago by Margaret Brent—the first woman lawyer in the colonies—right here in Maryland. Margaret Brent used her talents in the law, over-coming the fact of her gender, in very difficult circumstances. Margaret Brent had arrived in the colony in 1638. After settling in St. Mary’s City, she amassed one of the largest real estate holdings in the American colonies. Brent was a cousin of Lord Baltimore, the lord proprietor of colonial Maryland and she bought up sizable tracts of land in the colony for herself and her family and later, for political and investment purposes. Brent’s shrewd intelligence and ability to make and execute deals soon made her indispensable to the Governor of the colony, Leonard Calvert. In 1643, with civil war raging in England, Governor Calvert was called back to England. In his absence, Virginia Protestants had stirred up resistance to the Catholic colony of Maryland and were able to take control of the colony. When Leonard Calvert returned, from England, with Margaret Brent’s help, he was able to raise a force of men to retake St. Mary’s City. To pay the soldiers, the Governor