Son of William Brent of St. Mary Magdalen Bermondsey carpenter, apprenticed to Dru Drury knife handle maker. 6^Th July 1763. Free, 7 November 1770. First mark entered as haft-maker, 11 July 1775. Address: Hind Court, Noble Street, Foster Lane. Second mark on removal to Well Yard, Little Britain, 28 June 1782. Third to seventh marks, 1788 to 1796. Eighth on removal to 42, Little Britain, 28 March 1799. Ninth as small worker,7 October 1800.Address :12 Kirby Street, Hatton Garden. Tenth to twelfth marks as plateworker, 1804-7. Thirteenth to fifteenth marks as small worker, 1809-12. Sixteenth mark as plateworker, 18 October 1813. Address: 22, Greville Street, Leather Lane. Seventeenth mark, 29 July 1815. Eighteenth, 18 February 1817. Address: 19 Leather Lane. From the very large number of his mark entries and the frequency they are met with on knifehafts and blades of his working period it is obvious that Brent had a virtual monopoly as specialist in this field to the retail trade of his day. His knives are constantly found accompanying “flat ware” made by Eley, Fearn and Chawner as supplied to Rundell, Bridge and Rundell for all their best clients. Heal records him only at Bell yard, 1783-9. His mark previously ascribed to Mark Bock who was dead by 1783.