Modern English Biography (volume 1 of 4) A-H. Frederic Boase
Journal ii, 473–78 (1875).
BENNETT, John Joseph. b. Tottenham 8 Jany. 1801; ed. at Enfield and at Middlesex hospital; assistant keeper of the Banksian herbarium and library British Museum Nov. 1827, keeper 1828–70; F.L.S. 1828, sec. 1840–60; F.R.S. 16 Dec. 1841; wrote part of T. Horsfield’s Plantæ Javanicæ Rariores 1852–53. d. Maresfield, Sussex 29 Feb. 1876; bust by Weekes in botanical department British Museum. Journal of botany British and Foreign v, 97–105 (1876), portrait.
BENNETT, Samuel. b. Cornwall 20 March 1815; went to Sydney 1841; superintendent of a printing office there 1842–59; purchased with Wm. Hanson the Empire newspaper 1859, conducted it as a daily and weekly paper; started the Evening News 29 July 1867, the Australian town and country journal 8 Jany. 1870; author of The history of Australian discovery and colonisation 1867. d. Mundarrah towers, Little Coogee, Sydney 2 June 1878.
BENNETT, Samuel James. Founder of the Mercantile Association; founded the Commercial Gazette weekly paper 1853. d. The Firs, Staplecross, Sussex 23 May 1881.
BENNETT, Thomas. b. Hereford 22 Feb. 1785; captain R.N. 16 Sep. 1828; commodore on North America and West India station 7 Feb. 1848 to 29 April 1851; granted a service pension 2 Nov. 1863; admiral on h.p. 12 Sep. 1865; mayor of Hereford 1842. d. Broomy hill, Hereford 12 June 1870.
BENNETT, Thomas Randle (youngest son of John Bennett of Manchester, timber merchant). b. Manchester 1821; ed. at the gr. sch. and Ch. Ch. Ox., B.A. 1843, M.A. 1846, special pleader 1848; barrister I.T. 17 Nov. 1855; lectured on law and history at London Working men’s college Bloomsbury; an original member of English Church Union 1859, one of its central council; examiner to the Inns of Court 1877–78; author of A popular manual of the constitutional history of England 1862 and of several political pamphlets. d. Shrewbridge hall, Nantwich 23 Feb. 1885. Law Times lxxviii, 343 (1885).
BENNETT, William. b. Newmarket; enlisted into Cambridge militia 10 Oct. 1797 aged 20; enlisted into 46 Foot 18 March 1799, and into 32 Foot 15 June 1803, discharged 18 Aug. 1814; assisted at burial of Sir John Moore Jany. 1809. d. Inchicore, Ireland 23 Jany. 1872 aged 95, but generally reputed to be 105. W. J. Thoms’s Human longevity (1873) 235–36.
BENNETT, William. b. 1798; made his début in London at Haymarket theatre as Jack Junk in The birthday 15 May 1812; member of English opera company; played old men at Drury Lane about 1829; secretary to Drury Lane theatrical fund. d. Bellevue cottage, Walthamstow 8 Aug. 1875. The Oddfellow i, 77 (1839), portrait.
BENNETT, William. b. 1796; solicitor at Chapel en le Frith, Derbyshire 1819 to death; clerk to county magistrates 1834 to death; author under pseudonym of Lee Gibbons of The Cavalier 3 vols. 1821; Malpas 3 vols. 1822; The King of the Peak 3 vols. 1823; Owain Goch a tale of the Revolution 3 vols. 1827; these books are also attributed to Thomas Roscoe jun.; contributed to the Reliquary many papers on archæology of Derbyshire 1862–72. d. Chapel en le Frith 20 April 1879.
BENNETT, William Mineard. b. Exeter 1778; pupil of Sir Thomas Lawrence; a painter of portraits and miniatures; exhibited at the R.A. 1812–16 and 1834–35; lived many years in Paris; lived at Exeter 1844 to death; composed many glees and songs which were popular in Paris and Naples. d. Hill’s buildings, St. Sidwell’s, Exeter 17 Oct. 1858.
BENNETT, Sir William Sterndale (youngest child of Robert Bennett of Sheffield, organist of the parish church who d. 3 Nov. 1819). b. 8 Norfolk Row, Sheffield 13 April 1816; ed. at Royal Academy of Music, London 1826–36, and at Leipsic 1836–37; member of Royal Society of Musicians 1838; taught music in London; founded the Bach Society 1849; professor of music at Univ. of Cam. 4 March 1856; Mus. Doc. Cam. 1856, M.A. 1867; D.C.L. Ox. 1870; a life member of St. John’s coll. Cam. 26 Sep. 1856; conductor of Philharmonic Society concerts 1856–68, Beethoven gold medallist 7 July 1867; principal of Royal Academy of Music 22 June 1866 to death; knighted at Windsor Castle 24 March 1871; composed The Naiads, overture produced at Society of British Musicians 25 Jany. 1837; The wood nymphs, overture produced at the Gewandhaus concerts Leipzig 24 Jany. 1839; The May Queen, pastoral produced at Leeds musical festival 8 Sep. 1858; The woman of Samaria, oratorio produced at Birmingham musical festival 27 Aug. 1867. (m. 9 April 1844 Mary Anne only dau. of James Wood, commander R.N., she d. 17 Oct. 1862 aged 37.) d. 66 St. John’s Wood road London 1 Feb. 1875. bur. north aisle of choir Westminster Abbey 6 Feb. Grove’s Dictionary of music i, 224–29 (1879); W. A. Barrett’s English Church composers (1882) 163–65; Academy vii, 154, 179, 388, 466 (1875); I.L.N. xl, 551 (1862), portrait, lxvi, 152, 326 (1875), portrait.
BENNIS, George Geary. b. Corkamore, Limerick 1790 or 1793; a grocer at Limerick; settled at Liverpool where he became a Quaker; went to Paris 1823; director of a libraire des étrangers in Paris 1830–36; an insurance agent and librarian to the British embassy, Paris; edited Galignani’s Messenger; chevalier of the Légion d’honneur 1854; author of The principles of the one faith professed by all Christians, Liverpool 1816, 3 ed. Paris 1826; Traveller’s pocket diary and Student’s journal; Treatise on life assurance. d. Paris 1 Jany. 1866, left over 10,000 volumes to found a free library at Limerick. J. Smith’s A descriptive catalogue of Friends books i, 246 (1867).
BENSON, Charles. Ed. at Trin. coll. Dublin, scholar 1818, B.A. 1819, M.A. and M.B. 1822, M.D. 1840; L.R.C.S. Ireland 1821, F.R.C.S. 1825, pres. 1854; professor of practice of medicine in school attached to the college; M.R.I.A. 30 Nov. 1825; physician to City of Dublin hospital; contributed 4 articles to Todd’s Cyclopædia of anatomy and a course of lectures on the Diseases of the digestive organs to Dublin Medical Press 1840–42. d. 42 Fitzwilliam sq. Dublin 21 Jany. 1880 in 83 year.
BENSON, Rev. Christopher (son of Thomas Benson of Cockermouth, solicitor). b. Cockermouth 1788; ed. at Trin. coll. Cam., scholar, B.A. 1809, M.A. 1815; select preacher 1817; Hulsean lecturer (the first) 1820–22; fellow of Magd. coll. Cam. 1820; preb. of Worcester cathedral 27 Dec. 1825 to death; R. of St. Giles’s-in-the-Fields, London 1824–26; V. of Cropthorne, Worcs. 1826–40; master of the Temple London 1827–45; author of Discourses on powers of the clergy 1841; Baptism and baptismal regeneration 1843. d. Woodfield, Ross, Hereford 25 March 1868. The living and the dead by a country curate (Rev. E. Neale) 1827 pp. 81–98; E. M. Roose’s Ecclesiastica (1842) 413–15.
BENSON, Sir John (only son of John Benson of Collooney, co. Sligo). b. Collooney 1812; architect and civil engineer; county surveyor to east riding of co. Cork 8 April 1846; surveyor of city of Cork 29 Jany. 1851; architect and builder of Dublin exhibition 12 Aug. 1852 which was opened 12 May 1853, knighted by Earl of St. Germans at the opening; engineer of Cork waterworks which cost £80,000; built 48 bridges in co. Cork; M.I.C.E. 4 March 1862. d. 15 Alexander sq. Brompton London 17 Oct. 1874. Min. of Proc. of Instit. of C.E. xl, 251–53 (1875).
BENSON, Richard. Entered Bengal army 1805; colonel 11 Bengal N.I. 16 July 1849 to death; C.B. 3 April 1846; M.G. 28 Nov. 1854. d. at his residence on lake of Buttermere, Cumberland 26 Aug. 1858.
BENSON, Rev. Samuel. Ed. at St. John’s coll. Cam.; B.A. 1823, M.A. 1826; lecturer at St. John’s Horsleydown 1823–33; chaplain of Horsemonger lane gaol 1833–43; V. of St. Saviour’s Southwark 1868 to death; author of several sermons and tracts. d. 34 Borough high st. London 22 Feb. 1881 aged 82. I.L.N. xxiv, 401 (1851), portrait.
BENT, Jeffery Hart (eld. son of Robert Bent of Lancashire). Ed. at Trin. coll. Cam., B.A. 1804, M.A. 1807; barrister M.T. 7 Feb. 1806; chief justice of New South Wales 1814, of Grenada 1820 to 1833, of St. Lucia 1833 to 1836 and of British Guiana 1836 to death. d. George Town Demerara 29 June 1852 aged 72. I.L.N. xxi, 155 (1852).
BENT, Sir John (eld. son of Wm. Bent of Stoneyfield near Newcastle under Lyne). b. Newcastle under Lyne 1793; ed. at Newcastle gr. sch.; a large brewer at Liverpool; alderman of Liverpool, mayor 1850–51; knighted by the Queen at Liverpool 9 Oct. 1851. d. Edge hill near Liverpool 13 Aug. 1857.
BENT,