Margaret Brent

In Colonial America, Margaret Brent was the first woman to hold land in her own right. She managed her several thousand acres so successfully that in 1647 the provincial governor appointed her executor of his estate, which included the duties of Lord Baltimore, the colony's proprietor. 

At that time, Maryland was a colony in chaos — soldiers were clamoring for their pay, and there was a shortage of food. She sold the lord's cattle to prevent insurrection, incurring his wrath, but the assembly declared "it was better for the Colonys' safety that time in her hands than in any mans [sic] else in the whole Province."

Despite her wisdom and leadership, the Colonial Assembly denied her request for the right to vote as a "freeman." Although Margaret Brent did not attend law school or take the bar exam, she was America's first woman lawyer.

Adapted from "Proud to Be a Lawyer…a Female Lawyer," by Victorial L. Vreeland and Karen K. Koehler, Bar News, October 2001.