Evening star., 1947-10-26
Aquia Rites 10 Honor
First Catholic Settlers
In Virginia Tomorrow
By Rebecco Morston

AQUA, Va, Oct. 25.-This ancient
little community, once one of Vir-
ginia's most important cities and
now half forgotten, will be the
mecca of hundreds of worsl1ipers
tomorrow when they pay tribute to
the first Catholic settlers in Vir-
ginia who arrived here 300 years ago.
Prominent State clergymen will
celebrate an outdoor mass at II
am. at the burial site Of the Brent
family, not far from where the
first Catholic Church In Virginia
once stood. It was through the
influence of one member of the
family, an Indian princess, and
Giles Brents' wife that civilization
ultimately was established in the
Northern Neck.
The Most Rev. Peter L. Ireton,
bishop OF Richmond, will conduct
the mass, and the Rev. Michael j.
Cannon, pastor Of st. Peters Church
in Richmond, will deliver the SER
mon. The Rev. Carroll T. Dozier,
diocesan director of the Society for
the Propagation of the Faith, has
arranged the program.
Sister Practiced Law.
A large bronze cruciflx marks the
entrance to the Aqua burial grounds
80 miles south of Washington on
Route !. 1t was to this isolated
outpost that Giles Brent and his
Indian wife, Kittamaquad, fed in
1647-after her fathers death. Brent
unsuccessfully claimed most of the
Catholic colony of Maryland from
his cousin, Lord Baltimore.
With him came a few followers
and his sisters. Mary and Margaret,
Margaret, who violated the tradi-
tions of her day by acting as Lord
Baltimore's secretary and by prac-
ticing law, is said to be the first
woman In Virginia to advocate wom-
ans rights, including suffrage.
Brent built his home, Peace" on
Aqua Creek, where it empties into
the Potomac. With his fellow
churchmen he built a church and
surreptitiously had q priest come
from Maryland and hold services
every month.
Aqua Village prospered. Although
1t probably never was inhabited by
more than 10 to 100 persons, it be-
came during its time one of the
four most important communities In
Virginia. Ships are reported to have
dropped anchor here to await cargo
from the flourishing tobacco trade.
The territory itself was ceded to
the Indians, but because Brent's
wife was an Indian princess, the
pioneers lived there unmolested. It
was through her widely felt infiu-
ence that other settlers were allowed
to come between 1649- -1660-some
Of them cavaliers such as George
Mason, Fitzhugh, the Hooes and the
Peytons.
Some historians believe that but
for this community the influx of
settlers would have been slowed up
for many years and made difncult
by what otherwise would have been
continuing Indian warfare. The
Brent family unlocked the gate to
Northern Virginia to both Profess
tants and Catholics.
The isolation of Aqua served 1t
against early destruction when seri-
Gus attempts were made to eject the
Catholics. In fact, armed fighting
occurred which threatened to bring
into being microcosm of the whole
controversy of Catholic Maryland
and Church Of England Virginia.
Indians Killed Jesuits.
The Brents, however. were actual
ly not the first Catholics to reach
this historic pinpoint. In 1870, eight
Jesuits landed at Aqua and were
slain nearby in February, 1911, by
the Indians. A granite shaft has
been erected here by the Catholic
Students Mission in their memory
Also there is a memorial altar to the
late Father Walter j. Mott, erected
by the priests Of the Alexandra
diocese.
The cemetery, a comparatively re-
cent discovery, contains crumbling
tombstones marking the grave of
Mary Sewell, the third Lord Balti-
more's stepdaughter and the wife
of George Brent, Giles Brent's son
A depression in the ground is all
that remains to mark the site of the
early Catholic church.