Thomas Dent Thomas Dent, Gentleman was born about 1630 in the Parish of Guisborough, Yorkshire, making him slightly less than thirty years of age upon his arrival in America. It was not so very long after his landing in Maryland that he wedded Rebecca, the Virginia born daughter of the Rev. William Wilkinson and Naomi his wife. Thomas Dent established his residence in St. Mary's County, where most of his children were born and spent their childhood. He became one of the first aldermen of St. Mary's City, and an acre of land was patented to him by the name of "The Lawyer's Lodging", which is indicative of his profession, although he was also engaged in mercantile pursuits, and the cultivation of the soil. The record shows that prior to the patent of this lot which was on Aldermansbury Street, of which not a vestige now remains, Thomas Dent had built upon it and was a next door neighbor to Governor Thomas Notley. On September 4, 1663, Thomas Dent was issued a warrant for 850 acres of land patented under the name of "Gisborough", lying on the east side of the Anacostia River in a branch of the said river called Eastern Branch in Charles County standing by a little by called Gisborough Bay. Thomas Dent was appointed in 1664 High Sheriff of St. Mary's and a justice of the county court... he represented his county at the General Assembly in 1669, 1674, [and] 1675. He died in 1676.