Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/424

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BRENT. BREVOORT. lislieJau •• Analysis of Connecticut Tobacco Ash •' (IS7-2) ; "Tlie Minerals of Tilley Foster Miiie " (1873 ; " Fermentntiouand (Jerni Theory " (1877) ; •• Concerning Certain Misconceptions in Consider- ing the Relations between Science anil Religion (1880); "The Nitrogenous Element of Plant Food" (1880) and "Mineralogy of the Farm" (1881); "Pennsylvania College Book" (1882); ••Syllabus of Lecture on G»'i)logy." BRENT, Charles Henry. First missionary bishop of the Philippines, and 20-2d in succession in the American Episcopate, was born in New- castle, Ontario, Canada, in 1802 : son of the Rev. Canon Brent of St. James cathedral, Toronto. He was educated at Trinity college school. Port Hope, and was graduated at Trinity college, Toronto, in 188-1. He was ordained deacon in 1886 and priest in 1887 ; served as assistan. at St. Paul's Pro-cathedral, Buffalo, N.Y., 1887-'88, and at the Church of St. John the Evangelist, Boston, Mass.. 1888-91. He became associate pastor of St. Stephen's church at Boston in 1891. and was prominent in founding and building St. Augus- tine's Episcopal ciiurch for colored people in Bos- ton. He was nominated missionary bishop to the Philippines, Oct. 11, 1901, and was consecrated in Emmanuel church, Boston, Dec. 19, 1901. by Bishops Doane, Niles, Lawrence, Rowe, Satter- lee. Brewster and Codman, and Sweetman of Toronto. He left for his new field May 17, 1902. having received in gifts the sum of $125,000 to be used in building a cathedral, school and bishop's house in Manila. He received the degree D.D. from Trinity college, Toronto. He is the author of •' With God in the World." BRENTANO, Lorenzo, representative, was born at Mannheim, Baden, Germany, Nov. 4, 1813. He studied law at Heidelberg and Frei- burg ; was admitted to the bar and engaged in practice in Baden. He became a member of the Chamber of Deputies in 1834, allied himself with the Liberal party and was a member of the Frank- fort parliament in 1848. He was chosen president of the provisional republic in 1849, and when the grand duke was re-established fled to the United States. He was a farmer in Kalamazoo county. Mich., for ten years; engaged in the practice of law in Chicago. 111., in 1800. and served as a re- presentative in the state legislature in 1862. He was a member of the Chicago board of education five years ; a presidential elector on the Grant ticket in 1868, and visited Germany in 1869. He edited the Illinois Slaats-Zeitiing ; was U.S. con- sul at Dresden, 1872-'76, and a representative in the 4.'ith congress. He published a full report of the trial of the assassin of President Garfield, and a history of " King versus Missouri " (United States supreme court reports, 107). He died in Chicago, 111., Sept. 18, 1891. BRENTON, William, governor of Rhode Island, was born at Hammersmith, county of ^Middlesex, England, in the early part of the sev- enteenth fontury. He imniigrated to Boston in 1634, aTid lield important offices of trust in Massa- chusetts and in Rhode Island, where he settled in 1639. He was deputy -governor of Portsmouth and Newport, R. I., from 1640 to 1647; president of the colony from 1660 to 1663, and governor from 1666 to 1609, under the new charter granted by Charles II. He w-as one of the nine original pro- prietaries of Rhode Island, surveyed and selected for his home Xewqwrt, and built Ids house where Fort Adams was afterwards located. His grant gave him the privilege of claiming a certain amount of land for every mile surveyed, and in this way he accjuired vast possessions. Brenton's Reef and Brenton's Point, Narragansett Bay, take their name from him. He died at Newport, R. 1., in November, 1674. BREVARD, Ephraim, patriot, was born in North Carolina about 1750, and graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1768. He studied medicine and practised at Charlotte, N. C. He de- voted much study to the history and principles of the Presbyterian dissenters of Scotland, and while living among the bold freemen of Mecklenburg county, N. C, he ripened into a leader in that southern colony. He was a member of that memorable assembly which passed the celebrated act of .separation from the authority of the crown of Britain, and he was elected clerk of the com- mittee on resolutions. The famous Declaration was written under the direction of Ephraim Brevard by his nephew, Adam Brevard. The Mecklenburg Declaration passed the assembly May 31, 1775, thirteen months before the Declar- ation of Independence was adopted by the general congress at Philadelphia. Brevard, -with six brothers, joined the Continental army, and at the capture of Charleston in 1780 he was taken prisoner and suffered a long confinement, which destroyed his health, and he died at Hopewell, S. C, about 1783. BREVOORT, James Carson, bibliophile, was born in New York city, N. Y., July 10, 1818. He studied in American schools for a number of years and was graduated as a civil engineer, in 1837, at the ecole centrale des arts et manufactures in Paris. He afterwards engaged in engineering enterprises in the United States, and accepted an appoint- ment as private .secretary of Washington Irving, mini.ster to Spain. In 1844 he returned to America, settling permanently in Brooklyn, N. Y. He served on the boards of education and water commissioners for a number of years, was president for ten years of the Long Island his- torical society, and a member of the New York, Massachiisetts, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and other