My Ahnentafel
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Richard Bennett was born in Wiveliscombe, Somerset, England in 1608. He arrived in Virginia at the age of twenty and was elected to the General Assembly the following year, representing his uncle's estate at Warrosquoake. During the English Civil War, the Royal Governor of the colony, Sir William Berkeley, surrendered to representatives of the English Parliament and Bennett was unanimously elected governor by the Virginia House of Burgesses. He held that position from 1652 to 1655. From Vision of Britain, http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/place_page.jsp?p_id=25.
And here's a similar description from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868), transcribed by Colin Hinson: "WIVELISCOMBE, a parish and market town in the hundred of Kingsbury West, county Somerset, 15 miles S.W. of Bridgwater, 11 W. of Taunton, and 6 N. of Wellington railway station. It is situated in a comb, or valley, from which circumstance it takes its name, under the Maundown hills, and includes the chapelry of Fitzhead, the town of Wiveliscombe, and the hamlets of Croford, Ford, Langley, West Town, and Whitfield. It was a place of importance under the Saxons, and had a palace in the 15th century, belonging to the Bishops of Wells, to whom the manor was originally given by Edward the Confessor. It is a polling place for the county elections, and is governed by a bailiff, portreeve, and other officers, but is under the jurisdiction of the county magistrates, who hold petty sessions on the third Tuesday in each month. The population is close upon 3,000. The town is lighted with gas, and contains a townhall, police station, dispensary, reading-rooms, and branch bank. Here is situated the largest brewery in the W. of England." We're lucky to have anything regarding the Bennetts of Wiveliscombe. Exeter had been bombed by the Germans during the Second World War and many of the holdings for Somerset hand been sent there for safekeeping, but were lost.31 There's enough left to patch-quilt much of this together. From Public Record Office, High Court of the Admiralty (HCA): Recorded at the Public Record Office, High Court of the Admiralty (HCA), in the case of Ewers against Watts, on 12 February 1657, Bennett testified, I, Richard Bennett, an inhabitant of Virginia but at present living in London, born at Wilscombe in the county of Somerset, aged 49 years or thereabouts... John Bennett Boddie, in Seventeenth Century Isle of Wight County Virginia, quoted from the Virginia Magazine (Vol 30, page 360),1 At a Court James City 29 March 1628, Richard Bennet, aged 20 years, sworne and examined, sayth that Captain Preen or his assignes received satisfaction of Mr. Edward Bennett for the passage of two men in ye Hopewell, 1623 to be delivered to Virginia. The two records agree. We can reasonably accept that Bennett was born some time before April 1608 and not on the date of his christening, as is too often stated in online genealogies. The James City record is the first mention of Bennett in Virginia. Richard was preceded in the management of his uncle Edward Bennett's estate, Bennett's Welcome, at Warrosquoake (later changed to Isle of Wight), by Edward's brothers Robert and Richard, and, finally, by Edward himself in 1628. We can assume that Edward returned to London a short time later because nephew Richard was elected to the General Assembly as representative for Warrosquoake the following year. Over the next decade Richard Bennett became a large landowner and successful politician, appointed to the twelve-member Governor's Council in 1642. In 1635, Virginia's acting governor, John West, granted Bennett 2,000 acres on the Nansemond River for the plantation of forty people.35 Bennett's uncle, Edward Bennett, was a large supporter of the Puritans. Richard followed his example and Nansemond soon became a haven for dissenters. In 1642, because of a scarcity of Puritan ministers in the province, Bennett sent his brother, Phillip, to Boston for recruits, and a congregation of 118 members was soon organized.19 Joseph Dunn wrote in his history of Nansemond County, Virginia (1907), The rapid growth of the Independents disturbed the mind of the authorities and active measures were taken to suppress them. Religion and politics were practically synonymous in those days and Independence in religion spelled disloyalty in politics. England was in the midst of the fierce struggle between King and Parliament, and Virginia was loyalist to the core.13 
Sir William Berkeley, a favorite of King Charles I, was appointed governor the same year Bennett assumed his place on the Governor's Council. Interestingly, Berkeley was born in Bruton, Somerset, just more than fifty miles from Bennett's home town of Wiveliscombe. The men, undoubtedly, would have recognized that fact early on. But any superficial similarity between the two probably stops there — their ages and places of origin: Bennett was from a family of tanners and successful businessmen. Berkeley was born into the aristocracy. His father, Sir Maurice, was a knighted politician and soldier whose lineage dated back to the twelfth century. His elder brother, Charles, was the 2nd Viscount Fitzhardinge, and the next eldest, John, the 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton. Nevertheless, although the men became political rivals a decade later, they appear to have set their differences aside and worked well together throughout the remainder of their lives. Sir Francis Wyatt handed over the governorship to Berkeley on 8 March 1642. Only a year later, in March 1643, the new governor instructed the House of Burgesses to enact the following law (spelling modernized): ACT LXIV. Church leaders were banished and exiled. Some were imprisoned, and the Puritan community as a whole was disarmed. On 15 July 1642, Virginia Puritan leader Rev William Durand wrote to Rev John Davenport of the New Haven Colony that "if ever the lord had cause to consume the cittyes of Sodom and Gomorrah he might justly and more severely execute his wrath upon Virginia."22 Durand's continued activism led to his banishment to Maryland in 1648. After the beheading of King Charles in 1649, Governor Berkeley offered asylum to "royalist gentlemen" and proclaimed Charles II the King of Virginia. Virginia existed by charter from the King. But Maryland was a proprietorship under the the 2nd Baron Baltimore, Cecilius Calvert. Although a Catholic, Baltimore was sympathetic to the Protestants, if only to keep the peace with Parliament. In 1649 he elevated the lukewarm Puritan and Virginian, William Stone to the governorship. Stone quickly passed the Maryland Toleration Act, further encouraging emigration to Maryland. Bennett and Edward Lloyd, who had both been "presented by the Sheriff of [Nansemond County, Virginia] for seditions sectuaries, for not repairing to their church and for refusing to hear common prayer" crossed the Chesapeake Bay with ten families, founding the Puritan settlement of Providence, the site from which Annapolis sprung. More than a thousand Virginian Protestants soon followed15 and Bennett established a new plantation at Towne Neck.18 In a bit of hyperbole, J. D. Warfield, began a chapter of his 1905 book with, "Richard Bennett was the Moses from the Nansemond to the Severn."43 Despite the Toleration Act, which promised political protection to all Christians, the Puritans were concerned that its benefactors, Lord Baltimore and William Stone, were Royalists, and that the act was an instrument of power for the King. According to one source, Bennett returned to England to confer with Parliament.24 His purpose and actions while there are unknown, but in 1651 Parliament empaneled a commission of five — Captain Robert Denis, Richard Bennett, Colonel Thomas Stegge, a former Speaker of the House of Burgesses (1642-1643), Captain William Claiborne (who had had a nefarious history in Maryland), and Captain Edmund Curtis — to reduce "Virginia and Maryland to their due obedience to the Commonwealth of England." Two fleets were dispatched that October. The first was commanded by Sir George Ayscue and subdued the royal sympathizers in Barbados. A second fleet of fifteen vessels commanded by Robert Denis, and carrying six hundred men, sailed for Virginia. Denis and Stegge lost their lives on the frigate John, which, along with eight other ships, went down during a storm.16 The four remaining ships, including the 30-gun frigate Guinea under the command of Captain Edmund Curtis, arrived in Virginia the next January.20 Berkeley, intending to resist, stationed twelve hundred soldiers in and around Jamestown. But with the flight of Charles II to France and the loss of Barbados to Commonwealth forces, he thought it best to negotiate, and surrendered his office on 12 March 1652. Contrary to the instructions from Parliament, he was permitted to retire to his estate, Green Spring Plantation. Almost immediately, Bennett and Claiborne began pressing Virginia's historic claim to Maryland and, perhaps at the head of a small army, went into Maryland and proclaimed the dissolution of its government. Governor William Stone resigned his post on 29 March and a commission of six, including Bennett, was appointed to administer the province. The next day, the Virginia House of Burgesses unanimously elected Bennett as its new governor and on 5 May signed into law the Treaty of Jamestown, Virginia's formal surrender to the English Parliament. Under the articles, the power to govern the colony was assigned to the House of Burgesses, making the body a colonial facsimile of the House of Commons in England. In Maryland, Stone, who appears throughout his career to have regularly bent with the prevailing winds, was allowed to re-assume the title of governor, but the power of state remained with the two Parliamentary Commissioners, Richard Bennett and William Claiborne. They, in turn, empaneled a commission of ten to run the everyday affairs of Maryland.26 Later that spring, Bennett led negotiations with the Susquehannock and, on 28 June, signed a treaty, which ceded large tracts of land to the English, including that on which Annapolis now stands. It was signed by Richard Bennett, Edward Lloyd, Thomas Marsh, William Fuller, and Leonard Strong.11 Bennett's career as well as the political life in the whole of the Tidewater region appears to have steadied during the next three years, while Berkeley quietly continued his botanical research and correspondences at Green Spring House. By all accounts, Bennett ran the business of the colony competently. But he and like-minded Virginians were of the opinion that the whole region, including the lands the Calverts declared dominion over, should be rejoined with Virginia. Captain William Fuller, one of Maryland's ten commissioners, sought a militant solution and pressed the matter in ways that would bring about a crisis. Cromwell had been busy keeping the republican revolution alive in England and found it politically prudent to maintain the peace with Lord Baltimore. He had no interest in the colonial conflicts of the New World and sent a stern warning to Bennett and Claiborne: Whereas the differences between the Lord Baltimore and the inhabitants of Virginia concerning the bounds by them respectively claimed, are depending before our Council and yet undetermined; and whereas we are credibly informed you have notwithstanding gone into his plantation in Maryland and countenanced some people there in opposing the Lord Baltimore's officers, whereby, and with other forces from Virginia, you have much disturbed that colony and people, to the endangering of tumults and much bloodshed there, if not timely prevented: We, therefore, at the request of the Lord Baltimore, and of divers other persons of quality here, who are engaged by great adventures in his interest, do for preventing of disturbances or tumults there, will and require you and all others deriving any authority from you, to forbear disturbing the Lord Baltimore, or his officers or people in Maryland; and to permit all things to remain as they were before any disturbance or alteration made by you, or by any other upon pretense of authority from you, till the said differences above mentioned be determined by us here, and we give farther order therein.27 However it came to pass, Bennett didn't manage control of the situation as instructed by Cromwell. William Stone, who was still provisionally, if contested, the official governor of Maryland, began to react to Fuller's provocations. He raised a force of several hundred royalists and attempted to secure the province in the name of Lord Baltimore. Captain Fuller organized an equally strong Parliamentary force and confronted the would-be rebels on 25 March 1655 near Bennett's Maryland plantation, at Horn Point along the Severn River (now part of Annapolis). This engagement is known to history as the Battle of the Severn. Governor Stone and thirty-two others of his men were wounded. Seventeen royalists were killed, four of them summarily executed after the battle. And that would have been Stone's fate had cooler heads not prevailed. Battle of the Severn was the first time American met American in battle, the last battle in England's Civil War, and the last time that Parliament would go to battle with its own county. Bennett surely understand the enormous political consequences of the action and resigned the governorship a week later. Curiously, only the day before, on March 30, Berkeley sold one of his Jamestown homes to "Richard Bennett, Esq. Governour of Virginia."29 Later that year, the government of Virginia, now under the stewardship of Governor Edward Digges, received the expected letter from Cromwell. It's noteworthy that Bennett is referred to as Colonel Bennett: Whitehall, 26th September, 1655 The initial P refers to, incidentally, "Protector." [timeline to be developed here] Toward the end of his life, Bennett became interested in Quakerism, if not actually converting. William Edmundson, a preacher who came to the colonies from England with George Fox's party in 1672, wrote of Bennett, Richard Bennett, alias, Major General Richard Bennett and Colonel Teve, with others, and a great many Friends, some came a great way to that meeting.... He was glad to hear there was such care and order among us and wished it had been so with others. He further said he was a man of great estate, and many of our Friends were mean [poor] men, therefore he desired to contribute with them. He likewise asked me how I was treated by the Governor, he having heard that I was with him. I told him that he was brittle and peevish, and I could get nothing fastened on him. He asked me if the Governor called me Dog, Rogue, etc? I said, No, he did not call me so. Then said he, you took him in his best humor they being his usual terms when angry, for he is an enemy to every appearance of good. They were tender and loving, so we parted, the Major General desiring to see me at his house, which I was willing to do, and accordingly went. He was a brave, solid, wise man, received the truth, and he died in the same, leaving two Friends his executors.2 Will of Governor Richard BennettIt's noteworthy that Bennett mentions two cousins, "Silvester, the wife of Major Nicholas Hill," and "Mary, the wife of Mr Luke Cropley," said to have been daughters of Richard's uncle Edward Bennett. Ann is the only child he specifically names. Elizabeth is referenced through her children. Although is son, Richard Bennett, had drowned in 1667, his grandson, Richard, is named as living in Bristol, an important point. He inherits the balance of the estate not already provided to others. Richard Bennett III was to become the richest man in North America. A PDF of an original, handwritten copy. The following is as posted on the BENNETT-L Archives at Rootweb: Extracted from the Principal Registry of the Probate Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice Richard Bennett's FamilyA large number of unsourced web sites state that Richard married twice and try to assign several children to the first marriage. This is due, at least in part, to confusion between the governor and Richard Bennett Sr (1625-1709) of Blackwater, the probable son of Thomas Bennett of Mulberry Island. He is also often confused with his uncle, Richard Bennett, who managed Edward Bennett's estate until his own death in 1626, leaving a wife and five children in England. In any case, if the former governor did have additional children, they were not named in his will (below).
The point on the death of Richard Bennett Jr needs to be researched further. Dickson Preston wrote in 1972 that legend has it that he drowned on his property at Greenbury Point.40 Be that as it may, he wrote a will nearly a year and a half earlier, while still in his 20s. This was commonly done by persons of property before going on a voyage. And there is reason to suspect that Richard and his wife had gone to England, perhaps to represent his father's business interests. First, he references that he's childless in his 1666 will. Second, his father's 1675 will states that his grandson (Richard Bennett III) was residing in Bristol. And, finally, there are records stating that Susannah Maria Bennett, "daughter of Richard, deceased," was transported (meaning that someone paid her way) from England to Maryland in 1677, two years after the governor's death. Note, too, that a Richard Bennett was transported the same year.41 There's a new find that might turn out to be pertinent to Richard Jr's family. There is a baptismal record in King's Stanley, Gloucestershire, England for Susannah Bennett, daughter of Richard Bennett. That's not quite enough to prove her birth. The Bennett home county of Somerset is bordered by Bristol Channel on the north and Essex and the English Channel to the south. King's Stanley is at the Gloucester end of the channel and a bit south. Depending on where their journey from America ended, the village might have been a good spot to sit until they settled — wherever that might have been. If Susannah was indeed baptized there, this is where the event would have worked into the timeline: 29 Jan 1666. Richard Jr writes will in Maryland. This following abstract of Richard Bennett's Jr's will is published in the Maryland Calendar of Wills, Volume 1, page 38. The full transcription is found in the 1906 edition of the Maryland Historical Magazine. Dated 29 January 1666 We have to remember that the term cousin was loosely attributed in centuries past. The will of Richard Bennett III refers to both his half-brother, Edward Lloyd, and his brother-in-law, John Rousby, as cousins. Interestingly, the 400 acres assigned to cousin John Langley somehow came back into the family. Henrietta, Bennett Jr's widow, then wife of Edward Lloyd, passed it to her son, Richard Bennett III, at her death in 1697. This third generation Richard was born several months following his father's death, as attested to in his memorial, erected by his step-bother, Edward Lloyd, at Bennett's Point, Maryland: Here lieth the body of Richard Bennett Esq., who was born the 16th of September 1667, and died ye 11th of October 1749. His Father Died Young His Grandfather, who was also named Richard Bennett, was Governor of Virginia. No man was more Esteemed in Life In all Ranks of People than He, And this Esteem proceeded from his Benevolent & Charitable Disposition, Added to a Vast Depth of Understanding. To His Memory this Tombstone is dedicated by his Nephew, The Honourable Edward Lloyd Esq. 
Death of Richard Bennett III
Richard Bennett III was a remarkable man. Although his grandfather, the governor, had been a prominent Puritan, his father had married a devout Catholic. Had his father lived, who knows what the outcome would have been. But Richard and his older sister, Susannah, were raised Catholic, which set forth conflicts within the family. Under Bennett's stewardship, the lands he inherited from his grandfather grew enormously, and he became the richest man in British North America, as we can readily infer from his extensive will. He bequeathed about 25,000 acres to relatives, friends, and associates, and about 3,000 acres were disposed of before his death. But a controversy arose. He had ordered his earlier will destroyed and a new one drawn up, and the vast majority of his possessions went to his Protestant half-brother, Edward Lloyd. The Catholic side of the family cried foul and the matter went through the courts. I have identified none of his Bennett relations among those named. After all, he had never known his father and it's doubtful, if he spent his first years in England, he had ever met his grandfather. Decades before his death, Richard Bennett III erected a tomb to his
Catholic mother, Henrietta Maria Neale Bennett Lloyd, who is buried next to
her second husband, Colonel Philemon Lloyd. Shee that now takes her Rest within this tomb Three items regarding his death were published in the Maryland Gazette: 18 Oct 1749, 8 Nov 1749, and 10 Jan 1750. Richard Bennett's UnclesEdward Bennett  Richard Bennett certainly owed much of his position to the success of his uncle, Edward Bennett. Edward was an Elder of the Ancient Church at Amsterdam, Commissioner of Virginia to the Court of England, a Deputy Governor of the of the British Merchants of Holland, and a burgess seated in the Virginia General Assembly for the year 1628, perhaps the only time he was resident in the colony. A brief introduction to Bennett's Virginia interest can be found in this passage from Wiveliscombe: A History of a Somerset Market Town: Edward Bennett was another rich clothier in Wiveliscombe who made a fortune elsewhere, this time in London. In 1623 he shipped three packs of linen cloth bearing his mark to Virginia. His nephew Richard Bennett subsequently became the Governor and Captain General there for Oliver Cromwell until 1655.10 Ten years before Bennett's arrival in Virginia, in May 1618, Christopher Lawne and a company of twenty individuals founded Lawne's Plantation near villages of the Warrosquyoake tribe on the south side of the James River and down river several miles of Jamestown. Lawne and Ensign Thomas Washer represented "Warresqueak County" in the first meeting of the Virginia General Assembly in 1619. Within a year or so, Lawne and the balance of the population vacated to Elizabeth City due to widespread illness, and the area was absent of white settlers until February of 1622. By early 1621, Edward Bennett wrote a treatise criticizing the importation of Spanish tobacco. The tract impressed Sir Edwin Sandys, one of the founders of Virginia Company, and in April 1621 he recommended Bennett's admittance to the council.7 By one historian's account, Bennett became the company's largest investor and was responsible for transporting about six hundred colonists to Virginia, the first of whom arrived in February 1622 on the Seaflower, many of whom settled at Bennett's new plantation, Bennett's Welcome, at Warrosquyoake. Bennett remained in London. Another colonist, Nathaniel Basse patented land nearby the same year. Only a month after the ship's arrival, on Good Friday, the Powhatans led a concerted attack on the colony. At least 347 colonists were killed at 41 locations. More than 61 of them lost their lives (my count) at Bennett's Welcome. The remaining colonists at Warrosquyoake were withdrawn to Jamestown. But that didn't stop Bennett from continuing to transport volunteers. On 25 September 1622, Bennett signed a contract of indenture of three years with Wassell Webling, the son of a London brewer.42 Webling is found still living in Virginia in 1629, seven years beyond his commitment. However, Webling sued Bennett at the General Court in 1626. [The] said Wessell Webling shall goe downe and live uppon the 50 acres of land which he is to have of ye said said Mr Bennett, & shall pay for the same 50 (pounds) yearly & two dayes worke & such other things as are contained in ye said covenants, & that Mr Bennett's oeverseers shall deliver him his apparell mentioned in the covent & appoint out ye said 50 acres of land. However, in January 1628, the court ordered Webling to return to Warrosquyoake. The following persons, including Webling, were listed under the muster of Mr Edward Bennett on 7 February 1624/5. Note that Bennett himself is not present. Although he did spend time in Virginia in 1628, his children were born and being raised in London.
None are listed as being from the original arrival of the Seaflower. Antonio, above, is believed to have been Anthony Johnson, the same man who became a successful farmer in Maryland. It should be noted that there was another Anthony, a negro, indentured to Captain William Tucker. With two brothers, Richard and Robert, having died in Virginia while managing Edward's estate, Edward appears in the Virginia record as Burgess in March 1628. His nephews Richard, the future governor, age 20, and Robert, age 18, also appear in that year.39 Although they are not listed on any extant ship manifests, we might assume that the trio traveled to Virginia together. James Fulgham wrote in a family journal, Interestingly, in the study of these 17th century English cultural themes, one name frequently appears — that of wealthy merchant-mariner Edward Bennett of St. Olave's Parish, Hart St. London. In the first decade of the 17th century, he and his fellow non-conformist Ancient Brethren, then domiciled in Amsterdam, encouraged the Pilgrims from Scrooby, Nottingham and the greater east midlands and provided them support while the pilgrims attempted to establish themselves in the Netherlands. Ultimately, Edward Bennett is the unifying thread that ties together the involvement of the English east midland separatists, the West Country tobacco growers, and the greater London mercantilists in the settlement of Isle of Wight County, Virginia.34 Referring to Bennett as "the unifying thread" is certainly a grandiose claim. But he appears to have a hand in matters from an early date. Delia Horsfall of the Somerset and Dorset Family History Center provides a measured view of his involvement: To share the risks, merchants with similar interests joined together in a joint stock company. This could raise capital from landowners and other investors. This way the Virginia Company was formed in 1609. The capital was raised in The London Stock Exchange to build ships often with up to 64 contributors to share costs and risks Edward would have been well placed for this trade as main goods traded were woollens and weapons for furs which were soon replaced by tobacco. With Richard being able to find the return cargos, the brothers would be well on their way to expand the trade as the colony grew. Edward usually had three partners in these trips so he probably could supply all the woollens needed and we know that he traded in linen as well. Flax was grown around West Dorset and southeast Somerset. The sails for the Navy ships at least was grown here and they produced an extremely strong fabric that the West Country working men's smocks were made from. Around Wiveliscombe mainly serge was manufactured and dyed in the dark colours favoured by the Puritans.31 Horsfall continues, It would be unlikely that someone who fled to Holland would come back to London and prosper at the speed Edward did. Perhaps it is more likely when given the job of finding 200 or more souls to "plant" in Virginia that he looked to the Old church in Amsterdam and proceeded to offer finance. He would have ties with Amsterdam and the Dutch ports as they and London were still part of the old Hanseatic League. He obviously had a large fleet, I have found mention of John & Francis, Seaflower, Gift of God & Edward. [I] could not find confirmation for the Hopewell.32 According to Boddie, it was Bennett's ship, Edward of London, that he captained in 1627 during the Duke of Buckingham's (then the Lord High Admiral) "ill fated expedition for the relief of the Hougenots besieged in Rochelle by Cardinal Richelieu."8 He is also believed to have owned Gift of God, which transported settlers in (at least) 1618, 1622, and 1623. Using the Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles I, 1625-26 page 98 as his source, Boddie tells us that, "while on one of his own vessels, he was captured by the pirate Campaign."9 With that, we can add to the growing list of ships Edward had ownership in:
A will or other direct evidence of Edward's death has not been found. The following passage suggests he died sometime between 1638 and 1651, i.e. about the 1640s. This appears in John Dorman's Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607-1624/25, On 24 Aug 1635 Edward Bennett, aged 55, of St. Olave's, Hart Street, London, deposed concerning freight details of the ship Ann and Margaret to Virginia in which he was a partner with John Stoner and George Orme. He was still living in 1638 when his son Jasper was buried, but dead before 3 June 1651 when Mary Bennett was granted administration de bonis non administratis for the part of her father's estate still undistributed at the death of the executor, her brother-in-law John Bennett. She died before 26 May 1659 when administration of her estate was granted to Mary Bland alias Bennett "the well and lawfull daughter of Mary Bennett later of Stanmore in the County of Middlesex deceased." On 8 April 1663 the Virginia lands of Edward Bennett, 1500 acres in Isle of Wight, were divided between his two daughters and coheiresses, Silvester Hill and Mary Bland.30 I'm a little at odds with the Dorman's interpretation. Edward isn't mentioned. Mary was, of course, his wife and the daughter of Jasper Bourne whose will is being referenced. John Bennett was Edward's brother and the administrator of Bourne's will. Obviously, he was dead. Edward and Mary Bourne Bennett's family Edward and Mary raised their children in St Olave parish in London. This, then, is likely her death: "Marie Bennett, widow, buried at the parish of St Olave Hart St, London, 10 April, 1660."33 The majority of the following is taken from page 229 of Adventurers of Purse and Person. The last five children were born at St Olave parish on Hart Street in London. Samuel Pepys, who lived nearby, worshiped at the parish church. I've made some small corrections.
Robert Bennett Edward's brother Robert was the first of the Bennett family to manage Edward's estate in Virginia. Boddie puts him on Bennett's plantation during the 1622 attack by the Powhatan Confederacy that killed 347 colonists, 53 of whom were residing on the plantation. According to Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers, the Virginia Company authorized Bennett, being the master of the Samuel, to trade in Virginia.23 The 1623 letter he wrote from Bennett's Welcome to Edward at St Bartholomew Lane in London, is published in full in Boddie.5 It's several paragraphs long and details much of the political and economic news of Virginia. But it also contains genealogical information. Robert writes, with spelling modernized, Pray forget me not to all the rest of our good friends, yourself and your wife, my brother Richard and his wife, with your father-in-law and mother [Jasper and Joanne Bourne of London] and all the rest not forgetting my children whom I pray God to bless and us deliver and send us a joyful meeting. This is in some haste. I leave you to the merciful tuition of Thy Almighty in whom I rest. He also asks his brother to advice "Mr Brown" that his son is staying with him due to the scarcity of provisions. I believe this could be a transcription error and that the message was intended for their in-law, Jasper Bourne. Be that as it may, all transcription say Brown. Boddie states that Robert Bennett was dead by November 20th of the same year because "that is the date of a manuscript document in the Library of Congress that relates to the estate and debts of the late Robert Bennett." There is mention of this record in David Clapp's The New England (1877): "Robert Bennett, one of the proprietors of the plantation, is enrolled as residing at James City, and soon died. There is a warrant preserved, dated November 20, 1623, for the collection of the salary of William Bennett, minister for two years, from the estate of Robert Bennett... William Bennett was the first preacher at Waraskoyak. He came in 1621 in the ship Sea Flower, and the next year Catherine, his wife, twenty-two years of age, arrived in the Abigail. He died about the year 1624, leaving a widow and son William about three weeks old." (p 398). A transcription of the warrant located at the National Archives reads, A warrant for mr Benet for his meanes, By the Governor and Captaine generall of Virginia. Robert Bennett is found living at James City on "A List of the Livinge," a census taken throughout the Virginia colony on 16 February 1623. We already know from his letter that his family was not with him. But there's more to learn from the census. A family of Bennetts — an unnamed wife and two children — are living in Elizabeth City with Thomas Dewe and his wife who, according the Dewe family researchers, was Elizabeth Bennett (born 1607) and possibly a daughter of Robert's. If this is not Robert's family residing with her, perhaps it's one belonging to another brother. It's also possible that his family returned to England. Also found on the 1623 census is a Samuel Bennett of Elizabeth City, a Samuel Bennett at Bricke Row, a John Bennett at Warwick Squrake, and another Robert Bennett living in a household with John Booth on James Island. The 1624 census lists a Robert Bennett, 23 (born c1601), servant of Thomas Willoby of Elizabeth City. He arrived on the Jacob in 1624. Richard Bennett Robert's brother Richard was the next of the family to manage Bennett's Welcome. He also died after a short stay. Boddie writes that the General Court recorded on 13 October 1626, After ye death of Mr. Richard Bennett who deceased about ye 28 August last and without any sufficient or particular disposition of goods and other matter concerning both his estate and ye estate of Mr. Edward Bennett, his brother ...6 In other words, he left no will or other provisions for his estate. In Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers, Martha McCartney writes, An inventory was made of his estate, which was entrusted to Lodwick Pearle. English probate officials noted that [he] was from St Bartholomew by the Exchange in London.24 St Bartholomew is a parish in London. Its church burned down in 1666. This fact could be of use should Bennett records for the parish during this period emerge. Richard was married to Judith Brent as shown in the 1624 will of her father, Edward Brent, proved the following year by Sir Francis Wyatt, the Governor and Captain General of Virginia.14 Among the heirs listed are "Elizabeth Bennett, if she be remaining in Mr Richard Bennett's house, and to Jeane Bennett, her sister ... and to Richard Bennett, servant to Mr Richard Bennett." Having lost two brothers in Virginia, it was time for Edward himself to make an appearance. As stated above, Edward and his nephews, Richard (the future governor) and Robert, are first mentioned in the Virginia records in March 1628. John Bennett Although there was a John Bennett listed at Warrosquyoake in 1623 Virginia census, we can't know that he was the same man. We know of this brother only through the will of his brother-in-law Jasper Bourne, dated 1 February 1635 and proved by John Bennett more than a year later. It's clear that brothers John and Edward married Bourne sisters. I'm not sure where this transcription first appeared. Small spelling corrections have been made. Jasper Bourne, of Stanmore Magna, Middlesex. Feb. 1, 1635, gent. Proved by John Benitt, May 4, 1636. [67 Pile.] My wife Joan. My son John Benett, of London, merchant, standeth bound to my nephew John Bourne, of Lincoln's Inn, in ;£100. My grandchildren, children of my daughter Elizabeth Benitt, Pictures of my late Brothers William and Thomas Bourne, decd . My daughter Sylvestre, wife of my son William Hutchinson, clerke. My grandson Jasper Fell, son of Henry Fell, late of Hampsted, Midd*, gent., & of my daughter Sylvestre, now wife of William Hutchinson. My daughter Mary, wife of Edward Benett, merchant. The children of Benett & Hutchinson. My cosin John Cayne, the elder, of North Petherton, Som'. My wife's grandson, John Norwood, of London. My wife's daughter Elisabeth Ireland, alias Norwood. My sister Jane Bourne, late wife of Roger Bourne, of Wells, Somerset. My brother deceased. My niece Mrs Elizabeth Bishop, wife of Thomas Bishop, of Minehead. My niece Susan, widow of Mr John Cross, Master of Arts, deceased. My niece Mrs Ellinor Carliel, widow of Francis Carliel, gent., dec'd . My nephew Jasper Bourne, son of my nephew John Bourne, of Gothelney. My nephews John Bourne, of Gothelney, & John Bourne, of Durleigh, Overseers. My son John Benitt, Residuary Legatee & Exr. Other Virginia BennettsThere have been numerous attempts to identify this Thomas Bennett "of Mulberry Island" as being of the same family. From the muster taken on 7 February 1624/5, we know that Thomas arrived in Virginia in 1618 and that he was born in about 1586, making him about nine years younger than Edward. As far as we know, Edward was the last child in his family. Gov Bennett's elder brother, Thomas, was born in 1603 and is believed to have died at the age of five. He could have been a cousin to some degree, but the record is incomplete. We can only hazard to guess Mary's relationship to Thomas.
Y-DNA and Bennett OriginsRichard Bennett's male lineage died with his grandson, Richard
Bennett III. The hunt is on for a collateral representative through one
of his brothers. Edward's male progeny continued on in London, but I've
been unable to track them beyond his own grandsons, Thomas Bennett (1661-)
and Jasper Bennett (1664-). Some genealogists believe that Virginia
immigrant John Bennett (1624-1668) was Richard's nephew but proof is
lacking. Nevertheless, there are a number of male descendants living today,
but none have been found that have Y-DNA testing. I'm tracking these
lineages at http://ancestraldata.com/lineages/Bennett/.
A conveniently ignored fact among those researching the Wiveliscombe Bennetts is that the parish records state that Thomas Bennett, son of Thomas Bennett, was buried on 23 Dec 1608. It seems safe to assume that this was the same Thomas born to Thomas in Wiveliscombe and christened on 29 Nov 1603. If this is accurate, the Thomas who married Agnes Beard could not have been that person. Interestingly, there was a Thomas Bennett, son of Thomas and Agnes, christened in Bridgwater, which is located about 15 miles away, on 22 March 1606 (England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975). And we have another Thomas son of Thomas Bennett christened at Portishead, Somerset, just northwest of Bristol, on 20 November 1605 (England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975). But without knowing just when he was christened, we can't know who is father was. Furthermore, a man with the dates given to this Thomas is buried in London, as presently transcribed in memorial ID 143108606 at findagrave.com. Thomas Bennett, JrThere was a large population of Bennetts in that parish by that time, which may or may not mean something in regards to this man. 1. John Bennett Boddie, Seventeenth Century Isle of Wight County Virginia, vol 1 (Chicago: Chicago Law Printing Company, 1938), 52. 2. William Edmundson, A Journal of the Life, Travels, Sufferings and Labor of Love in the Work of the Ministry. (London: Mary Hinds, 1774), 70-72. 5. Boddie, 43-46. Copies are also found in The Records of the Virginia Company in London, volume IV; Papers of Lord Sackville, No. 6212; and American Historical Review, XXVII, pp. 502-508. 6. Boddie, 52. 7. Edward D Neil, Virginia Carolorum: The Colony Under the Rule of Charles the First and Second (Albany, John Munsell's and Sons, 1886), 224. 8. Boddie, 51. According to his Wikipedia article, dramatist and pirate, Lording Barry, was part owner of the Edward of London. 9. Boddie, 50. British History Online provides access to these documents. 10. Susan Maria Farrington, editor, Wiveliscombe: A History of a Somerset Market Town (Wiveliscombe: Colden Publications, 2005), 117. Brian Collingridge, one of the authors emailed the passage to me in April 2019. 11. Walter W Preston, History of Hartford County, Maryland (Baltimore: Press of Sun Book Office, 1901), 24. 12. William Waller Hening, "The Statutes at Large," I (Richmond: The Franklin Press, 1820) p 277. 13. Joseph Bragg Dunn, The History of Nansemond County, Virginia (Place of publication not identified, 1907). 14. Archibald F Bennett, "Bennett," The William and Mary Quarterly Vol. 16, No. 2 (Apr., 1936), pp. 316-318. 15. Lyon Gardiner Tyler, England in America, 1580-1652 (New York: Cooper Square, 1968). 16. Stegge wrote his will on board the John ("now bound forth in a voygable to Vergenia") on 6 October 1651. It was proved by his wife on 14 July 1652. 18. Towne Neck was later renamed Greenberry Point for Colonel Nicholas Greenberry, an arrival from England in 1674. 19. These ministers were "Rev. William Thompson, a graduate of Oxford, John Knowles, of Immanuel College, Cambridge, and Thomas James" ("Anne Arundel County Maryland Our Early Settlers," Maryland Genealogy Trails, web.) 20. These were heady times. The following, although not
directly pertinent to Bennett, illustrate the social and political
environment in which he operated. The Guinea also included prisoners
captured at Worcester at which the Scots lost to Cromwell's forces. These
passages are quoted in a 2008 post by Matthew Redman in the Ingram board at
genealogy.com. "Both he and his father were captured September 3, 1651, on
the field of Worcester. Malcolm was banished by the Council of Estates on
September 10th, transported about the 20th by the parliamentary fleet, and
delivered to Jamestown, Virginia, by Captain Edmund Curtis of the frigate
Guinea, on March 29, 1652.There he was bound servant to Nicholas Waddylone
for seven years" (Anna Hanson McKenney Dorsey).... "The fates were kind to
Malcolm when he was transported from London after an imprisonment of only
two weeks, for those left behind him contracted a contagious disease of
which few survived. He also escaped a fatal assignment to the sugar cane
fields in Barbados, and reached Jamestown during the month of March, when
the dread malaria was dormant. Good fortune continued when he was bought by
the Quaker, Nicholas Waddylone in the new land, for among this gentle sect
his lot was better by far than that of many other prisoners of war delivered
to the colonies by Oliver Cromwell" (Foreword to A History of the Mc-Kenney
Family of the Eastern Shore of Maryland by John and Maria McKenney). 21. Oswald Tilghman, Annapolis, History of Ye Ancient City and its Public Buildings (Annapolis: Capital Press Gazette, 1929?), pages 5-7. 22. Kevin Butterfield. "Puritans in Colonial Virginia." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 17 Jul. 2014. Web. 23. Martha W. McCartney, Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers 1607-1635, A Biographical Dictionary (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2007), 127. 24. McCartney, 126. 25. This point deserves some attention. Most recounters of these events say that Bennett stayed in Maryland, but it would make sense that he went to England to state the case. 26. "Archives of Maryland, Historical List, Governors of Maryland, 1634-1689," Maryland State Archives, web. The ten commissioners appointed by Bennett and Claiborne were: William Fuller, William Durand, John Smith, John Lawson, Richard Wells, Richard Preston, Edward Lloyd, Leonard Strong, John Hatch, and Richard Ewen. 27. Letter from Oliver Cromwell to Richard Bennett, as quoted in William Hand Browne, George Calvert and Cecilius Calvert, Barons Baltimore of Baltimore (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1890), 148-149. 28. "Letter," 154. 29. Warren M Billings, editor, The Papers of Sir William Berkeley, 1605-1677 (Richmond: Library of Virginia, 2007), 108. See copy of the transcribed deed, file deed-wb2rb.html. 30. John Frederick Dorman, C.G., F.A.S.G., Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607-1624/25 I, 4th ed. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc, 2004), 228-229. 31. Delia Horsfall (Somerset and Dorset Family History Center), emails to author, 4 and 5 July 2019. 32. ibid. 33. Archibald Bennett, "Bennett," William and Mary Quarterly [date?], 316-318. 34. James Grant Fulgham, "In Search of Captain Anthony," Fulgham-Fulghum Family Facts Spring 2007, Fulgham-Fulghum Family National Association, page 4. 35. John B Dunn, "Suffolk Parish, Nansemond County, Virginia," Colonial Churches, ed. W M Clark (Richmond: Southern Churchman Co, 1907), 229. 36. "Governor in Virginia. A Warrant for Robert Benet November 20, 1623," Manuscript Records Virginia Company, III, pt. ii, pp. 53, 53a; Document in Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.; List of Records No. 592. 37. Jane Baldwin, Maryland Calendar of Wills, 1635-1685 1 (Baltimore: Kohn & Pollock, 1904), page 38. 38. Maryland Historical Magazine 17, page 24. 39. It's easy to conclude that Richard and Robert were brothers. That's not the case. Richard's brother Robert was several years older and believed to have been born 1601. Martha McCartney's "Jamestown People to 1800" suggests they were first cousins. If so, Robert might have been the son of Richard's uncle, William Bennett. 40. Dickson Preston, "Ozymandias Beside the Chesapeake," The Sun Magazine, 5 November 1972 (Baltimore: The Baltimore Sun, 1972), 20-23. 41. Gust Skordus, The Early Settlers of Maryland (Baltimore: Genealogical Company, 1968), 37. 42. H R McIlwaine, editor, General Court of Colonial Virginia, 1622-1632, 1670-1676, (Richmond: Virginia State Library, 1924), 124. 43. J D Warfield, A M, "Richard Bennett," The Founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, Maryland: A Genealogical Review from wills, deeds, and church records, (1905; repr., Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Company, 1991), 41. 44. Dorman, III, 441-442.
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In
1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales
described Wiveliscombe like this: