Sir Nathaniel Brent

Sir Nathaniel Brent (c. 1573 – 6 November, 1652) was an English college head.

He was the son of Anchor Brent of Little Wolford, Warwickshire, where he was born about 1573. He became 'portionist,' or postmaster, of Merton College, Oxford, in 1589; proceeded B.A. on 20 June 1593; was admitted probationer fellow there in 1594, and took the degree of M.A. on 31 October 1598. He was proctor of the university in 1607, and admitted bachelor of law on 11 October 1623.

In 1613 and 1614 he travelled abroad, securing the Italian text of the History of the Council of Trent which he was to translate. In 1616 he was in the Hague with Dudley Carleton, ambassador there, who wrote about Brent’s ambitions to Ralph Winwood. Soon after the close of his foreign tour Brent married Martha, the daughter and heiress of Robert Abbot, Bishop of Salisbury, and niece of George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury.

The influence of the Abbots secured Brent's election in 1622 to the wardenship of Merton College, in succession to Sir Henry Savile. He was afterwards appointed commissary of the diocese of Canterbury, and vicar-general to the archbishop, and on Sir Henry Marten's death became judge of the prerogative court. During the early years of William Laud's primacy (1634-7), Brent made a tour through England south of the Trent, acting for the archbishop in his metropolitical visitation of the province of Canterbury, reporting upon and correcting ecclesiastical abuses.

He had a house of his own in Little Britain, London and was often absent from Merton. On 23 August 1629 he was knighted at by Charles I of England, who was preparing to pay a state visit to Oxford. In August 1636 Brent presented Prince Charles and Prince Rupert for degrees, when Laud, who had become Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 1630, was entertaining the royal family.

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