In 1650, Mary, Margaret and Giles Brent erected homes on Aquia Creek, Virginia. They were the first English Catholic inhabitants of Virginia. In this same area, twenty-six years later, the first English-speaking Catholic colony of Virginia was settled. In 1677, a Catholic Church was erected here. After their nephew, George Brent, and others had been successful in obtaining a Proclamation from James II guaranteeing religious freedom on the 30,000 acres of the Brenton Tract, many settlers came to this area. Today, a large bronze Crucifix can be seen near the highway in Stafford County as a reminder of the religious efforts of the Brent Family. _The Commonwealth and the "Golden Age"_ The Virginia Colony finally received a charter of self-government during Oliver Cromwell's rule in England and became the Commonwealth of Virginia on March 12, 1651. The Treaty of Jamestown provided that Virginians would be guaranteed the freedoms and privileges of the English people in return for a recognition of the Puritan Commonwealth of Cromwell in England. The colony prospered under Governors Richard Bennett, Edward Digges and Samuel Matthews from 1652-1660. By 1660, the population of the Virginia Colony was approximately 33,000 or over four times as much as in 1640. Many of this number consisted of Cavaliers. The population which first had centered around Jamestown, along the James River to the junction of the James and Appomattox Rivers and along the navigable inlets, now had broadened into the Tidewater area. As tobacco production and the use of tobacco increased and as soil fertility became exhausted, more land was added to the individual farms until large plantations appeared almost common. Class society in Virginia changed, generally, from a middle-class one to two distinct classes: the wealthy plantation owner who could afford such personal workers as slaves and servants and the tenant farmer who worked for a plantation owner. In return for his services, he was usually allowed to have a small plot of ground for his own use and a small farm on which to live. When the Cavaliers, mostly wealthy gentlemen, migrated to Virginia, they brought added aristocracy to the Virginia Colony.