Robert Brent built a house which he named Brentfield (the manor house which later burnt to the ground was about a mile from Bel Alton, Maryland). However, because William Leigh Brent married a local heiress, his father secured William's consent to leaving it to his younger brother, George Brent (1817–1881), who became a Judge of Maryland's Seventh Judicial District and of the Circuit Court of Appeals. Virginia congressman and Senator Richard Brent (1757–1814) was a paternal cousin. Another paternal cousin was Robert Brent (1764–1819), who became the first mayor of Washington, D.C. and freed his slaves in his will.
