Author: Brent, William
Biography:
BRENT, William (1799-1867: ancestry.co.uk)
Although precise confirmation is wanting, likely the William Brent who published the four books of verse included in this bibliography was born on 5 Aug. 1799 at Rotherhithe, Surrey. He was a younger son of Samuel Brent, a shipbuilder, and his wife Frances Dempster Barton (d 1835) who had married at Rotherhithe on 31 May 1783. His birth and those of his eight siblings were registered at Dr. Williams’s Library, London. His father and uncle Daniel are recorded as shipbuilders operating from premises in Lower Queen Street, Rotherhithe. It was evidently a prosperous business; on Samuel’s death in June 1814 his will left William a total of £5500 while also providing generously for his wife and other children. William Brent moved to Dover, Kent, with his brother John and there married Jane Peirce (1796-1832) on 20 Oct. 1821; they had five children but just one, Bernard Peirce Brent, survived to adulthood. Probably in the early 1820s the family moved to Canterbury, Kent, where Brent became a prominent member of the Canterbury Philosophical and Literary Institution, lecturing on aesthetics, the history of music, poetry, and European songbirds. Jane died at Deptford, London, on 6 Dec. 1832 and Brent married Eliza Love at St. Mary, Newington, London, on 14 June 1834. In the 1851 and 1861 Censuses they are recorded as living at Military Road, Canterbury, with William’s occupation given as “gardener” in 1851. His son died on 18 Jan. 1867 and Brent followed him soon after, dying at Battle, Sussex, on 8 July 1867. The evidence linking the subject of this headnote to the poet William Brent is compelling: favourable reviews of his verse in Kent newspapers refer to the author as “William Brent of Canterbury,” he had literary interests and on at least one occasion a poem by him was read at a meeting of the Canterbury Institution to which he belonged, and his poem Sturry is a personal tribute to the Rev. Sampson Kingsford (1750-1821) who was related by marriage to Brent through his brother John Brent. (ancestry.co.uk 26 May 2026; findmypast.co.uk 26 May 2026; Essex and Herts. Mercury 8 May 1827; Kentish Weekly Post 3 Apr. 1827, 1 July 1828; Kentish Gazette 29 Mary. 1833; Brent family history at https://maths-people.anu.edu.au/~brent/personal/family2.html; information from AA) SR