Aug., 1880. He was descended from a Roman Catholic family, early settlers of Maryland, and was a grand-nephew of Archbishop Carroll. Pie contributed to Porter's " Spirit of the Times," over the well-known signature of " Stirrup," and was the associate of Lewis Gaylord Clark in founding and editing the " Knickerbocker," a magazine that enjoyed great popularity from 1833 until 1864. Mr. Brent was also a painter. His best lit- erary work was " Life Almost Alone," published as a serial in the " Knickerbocker," and " Was it a Ghost i " a theory and discussion of the celebrated murder of the Joyce children (Boston, 1868).
BRENT, Richard, senator, b. in Virginia ; d.
in Washington, D. C, 30 Dec, 1814. He was a
representative in congress from 7 Dec, 1795, till
3 March, 1799, and again from 7 Dec, 1801, till 3
March, 1803. He was elected a senator from Vir-
ginia, and served from 22 May, 1809, till his death.
BRENTANO, Lorenzo, journalist, b. in Mannheim,
Germany, 4 Nov., 1813; d. in Chicago, 18 Sept.,
1891. He received a thorough classical training,
and studied jurisprudence at Heidelberg and Freiburg.
He was admitted to practice in Baden, and
after attaining the legal age was elected to the
chamber of deputies. He took part in the revolution
of 1848, being a member of the Frankfort
parliament, and subsequently president of the
provisional republican government established in 1849,
by the then hopeful revolutionists. The power of
Prussia intervened in July of that year, and the
grand duke was re-established. Brentano effected
his escape, and only knew that he had been
sentenced to imprisonment for life after reaching the
United States. He settled as a farmer in
Kalamazoo co., Mich., and remained there until 1859,
when he removed to Chicago and was admitted to
the bar. He soon became editor of the “Illinois
Staats-Zeitung,” and in 1862 was a member of the
state legislature. For five years he was president
of the Chicago board of education. In 1868 he
was presidential elector on the Grant and Colfax
ticket. In 1869, a general amnesty having been
granted to the revolutionists of 1849, he revisited
his native land. He was appointed U. S. consul
at Dresden in 1872, and served until 1876, when
he was elected to congress, where he served until
3 March, 1879. After leaving congress he devoted
much time to historical and literary researches
designed to compare and contrast the American and
European codes of criminal procedure. In this
line of work he has published a report of the trial
of the assassin of President Garfield, and a history
of the celebrated case of King v. Missouri (U. S.
Supreme Court Reports, 107). This last was
republished in Leipsic. In 1884 Mr. Brentano gave
up active work, owing to partial paralysis.
BRENTON, Jahleel, sailor, b. in Rhode Island,
22 Aug., 1770; d. in Elford, England, 3 April, 1844. He was the eldest son of Rear-Admiral
Jahleel Brenton, who, with his family, came to
America early in the 17th century. The father
held a lieutenant's commission in the royal navy
when the war for independence began, and re-
mained loyal to the crown, as did nearly all the
Americans who were in the navy at that time.
Young Jahleel was appointed midshipman on his
father's ship in 1781. In 1802 he married Isabella
Stewart, an American lady, to whom he had long
been engaged. She died in 1817, and in 1822 he
married a cousin, Harriet Brenton, who survived
him. He rose to eminence in his profession, at-
taining the rank of rear-admiral of the blue in
1830, having rendered gallant and distinguished
s^rvices wherever he met the enemies of Great
Britain. Fortunately he was not called ui)on to
encounter the navy of his native land during the
war of 1812. He was very devout, and gave a
great part of his time and energy to religious and
charitable work, especially among sailors. He
wrote " The Hope of the Navy " (London, 1839) ;
" An Appeal to the British Nation on Behalf of
her Sailors" (1841); "Memoir of Capt. E. P.
Brenton " (1842) ; and " Coast Fisheries " (1843). A
memoir of his life and services was published
in 1846 by the Rev. Henry Raikes (new ed.
abridged, and edited by Sir Launcelot Charles Lee
Brenton, onlv son of the admiral, 1855).
BRENTON, Samuel, clergyman, b. in Gallatin
CO., Ky., 22 Nov., 1810 ; d. in Fort Wayne, Ind.,
29 March, 1857. He received an English educa-
tion, and at the age of twenty entered the Methodist
ministry and served as a preacher until 1848, when
he suffered a stroke of paralysis. During his min-
istry he had studied law, and was admitted to the
bar. He served for a year as registrar in the land-
office at Fort Wayne, and in 1851 was elected as a
whig to congress. He was defeated for the next
congress, but in the mean time had been chosen
president of Fort Wayne college and filled the
office acceptably until 1854, when he was re-elected
as a republican to the 34th and 35th congresses.
BRENTON, William, governor of Rhode Island, b. in England early in the 17th century ; d. in Newport, R. I., in 1674. The family canie from Hammersmith, England, where they were persons of wealth and high social standing during the
reign of Charles I. William Brenton represented the colony at Boston for several years, beginning in 1635, was lieutenant-governor of Rhode Island prior to 1660, president of the colony between 1660 and 1661, and governor under the charter obtained from Charles II. from 1666 till 1669. His original grant gave him a certain number of acres for every mile of land surveyed, and on the strength of this he secured much valuable property. He was one of the nine original proprietaries of Rhode Island. He selected and surveyed the site of Newport, built a large brick house where Fort Adams
now stands, arid laid out handsome walks around
it. His name is preserved in Brenton's Point and
Brenton's Reef, Narragansett bay.
BRESSANI, Francesco Giiuseppe, Italian
Jesuit missionary, b. in Rome in 1612 ; d. in Flor-
ence, 9 Sept., 1672. After spending two years with
the Indians near Quebec he was sent on a mission
to the Hurons in 1644, was captured on the way
by the Iroquois and tortured, but was afterward
made over to an old squaw to take the place of a
deceased relative. She sent him to Fort Orange
(now Albany, N. Y.), where the Dutch paid a large
ransom for him, and on his recovery sent him to
France. He came again to this country in the
spring of 1645, maimed and disfigured, and lived
with the Hurons until 1650, when he returned to
Italy, in broken health. He published " Relazione
dei Missionarii della Compagnia de Gesu nella
Nuova-Prancia " (Macerata, 1653 ; English trans-
lation, Montreal, 1852).
BRETON, Raymond (bray-tong), French mis-
sionary, b. in 1609 ; d. in 1679. He entered the Do-
minican order, and for twenty years devoted him-
self to preaching and study in Santo Domingo and
other parts of the West Indies. He published a
French-and-Caribbean dictionary, a Caribbean
grammar, and a Caribbean catechism.
BREVARD, Ephraim, patriot, b. about 1750; d. in Charlotte, N. C, about 1783. He was graduated at Princeton in 1768, studied medicine, and settled at Charlotte to practise. He sympathized
