Author: Bennett, Charles Frederick
Biography:
BENNETT, Charles Frederick (1775-1857: ancestry.co.uk)
He was baptised on 27 Oct. 1775 at St. Margaret’s, Westminster, London, the second son of Rev. Thomas Bennett DD (1743-1816), Fellow of Trinity College Cambridge, Minister of Highgate Chapel, and Master of the Free Grammar School at Highgate, and his first wife Mary Large (1742-90), who had married on 8 Jan. 1765 at St. Bride’s, Fleet Street. He was educated at a writing and ciphering school in Charles Street, Westminster, before to proceeding first to Westminster School and then to St. Paul’s, where he learnt classics and acquired a love of declamation. He was articled to an attorney and registered at the Inner Temple but does not seem to have practised. He preferred the life of the theatre and took up acting in Norfolk, principally at Yarmouth and Lowestoft. He married Eliza Sheppard on 29 Mar. 1809 at Foulsham, Norfolk. They had at least one daughter. He published His Memoirs and Poetry (1817) at Holt, Norfolk. By 1834, he was living in Kent at Canterbury, where he published the second work listed here. His wife may have been the Eliza Bennett who died in 1843 at Canterbury, aged 65. In 1851 he described himself as a widower and Teacher of Classics. He died in Canterbury and was buried at St. Gregory’s on 18 Oct. 1857. (Deakin, His Memoirs and Poetry [1817]; ancestry.co.uk 20 Jun. 2022; findmypast.co.uk 20 Jun. 2022; OWW Records online at hughpagan.com) AA