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, John. Assistant surgeon in the army 11 Sep. 1838; served in the Crimea 30 April 1855 to end of the war; deputy surgeon general 28 Jany. 1862; surgeon general 11 July 1874 to death. d. The Camp Aldershot 23 Nov. 1874 aged 57.
BENT, Robert (son of Wm. Bent who founded Bent’s Literary Advertiser 1802). Edited The London Catalogue of books 1839. d. 6 Dec. 1859.
BENTHAM, George. b. June 1787; entered navy 1795; captain 16 Sep. 1816; retired V.A. 9 July 1857; knight of Sardinian order of St. Maurice and St. Lazare. d. Barton fields, Canterbury 24 Feb. 1862.
BENTHAM, George (2 son of Sir Samuel Bentham, naval architect 1757–1831). b. Stoke near Plymouth 22 Sep. 1800; lived in France 1814–26; managed his father’s estate of 2000 acres near Montpellier; student at Lincoln’s Inn; worked for his uncle Jeremy Bentham 1826–32; F.L.S. 1828, vice pres. 1858, pres. 1861–74; hon. sec. of Horticultural Society 1829–40 which he raised to a flourishing condition; presented his collections and books valued at £6,000 to Kew Gardens 1854; F.R.S. 5 June 1862, royal medallist 1859; LLD. Cambridge 4 June 1874; C.M.G. 1878; author of Outlines of a new system of logic 1827 which set forth for the first time doctrine of quantification of the predicate, the most fruitful discovery in abstract logical science since Aristotle; Handbook of the British flora 1858, 2 vols. 1865; Flora Hong-Kongensis 1861; Flora Australiensis 7 vols. 1863–78; author with Sir Joseph Hooker of Genera Plantarum, 6 parts in 3 vols. 1862–83 which marks an epoch in botany. d. 25 Wilton place, London 10 Sep. 1884. Nature xxx, 539–43 (1884); G. C. Wallich’s Eminent men of the day (1870), portrait.