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Author: Benett, William

Biography:

BENETT, William (1779-1859: ancestry.co.uk)

The third son of Thomas Benett (or Benet) and his wife Catherine Darell, he was born in Wiltshire. His parents had married on 3 Jan. 1771 in St. James’s, Piccadilly. He was baptised at Tisbury, Wiltshire, on 24 June 1779. One source states that he gained his BA from Oxford but he is not listed in Alumni Oxonienses. The allegation for his marriage to Ellen Gore is dated 22 June 1815 and identifies him as a barrister of the Middle Temple. He married Ellen on 26 June in St. George’s, Hanover Square, London; they had at least five children. He was appointed to the Police Office on 1 Aug. 1817 and served as a magistrate. The family lived at 14 Nottingham Place, Marylebone. The 1851 Census shows him living there as a widower with one daughter, Ann. He died on 25 Aug. 1859 in Sydenham, Kent, and was buried in the churchyard of All Saints, Sydenham. His only other publication is an 8-page poem, Bethlehem (1837). He is not to be confused with William Bennet, a solicitor, who may or may not have written four novels published as by “Lee Gibbons” in the 1820s. (ancestry.co.uk 30 Mar. 2023; findmypast.co.uk 30 Mar. 2023; EN2; Rules and Regulations for the Government of the Athenaeum [1844], 29)

 

Books written (1):

London: James Carpenter and Son, 1817