James Fenwick Brent, Rapides Parish Louisiana
Typed by: Gaytha Carver Thompson

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SOME PROMINENT RAPIDES NAMES OF LONG AGO
by DR. G. M. G. STAFFORD
Source: Melrose Collection #66; NSU Archives; Natchitoches, LA.
Louisiana State Courier January 1985
Compiled by: Annette Carpenter Womack, editor


JAMES FENWICK BRENT
Another name, which, through short lived, shot like a meteor. through its
brief earthly career, illuminating all around it.  I refer to the Hon. James
Fenwick Brent, lawyer and statesman.  He was born at St. Martinsville, La on
February 3, 1814, and died at his home in Rapides parish on June 15, 1847.  He
was the second son of William Leigh Brent and his wife, Maria Fenwick, natives
of Maryland.  He was a direct descendant of Richard the Lord of Stoke and
Admington and still further back he descended from Odo de Brent, the Lord of
Cossington, who came over to England to the retinue of William the Conqueror.

James Fenwick Brent married Laura Overton, the daughter of General Walter
Hampton Overton and his wife, Harriett Winter.  Mr. Brent soon rose to
prominence at the local bar and was elected in 1845 a member of the convention
which framed the new Constitution of Louisiana.  He and his wife both died
young, leaving four daughters.  Both were buried on McNutt's Hill, near Boyce,
La., where fitting monuments mark their resting place.