George Geary Bennis
George Geary Bennis | |
---|---|
Born | 1790 |
Died | Paris, France |
Occupation(s) | writer librarian |
George Geary Bennis (1790–1866) was a writer, originally from Limerick in Ireland.[1] At different times Bennis also worked as a grocer, a librarian and a newspaper editor. In retrospect, however, he is chiefly remembered as a prodigious book collector who bequeathed enough volumes to his native city of Limerick to form the basis of a library "for the free use of the citizens", although it would only be in 1893 that the first public library in Limerick was actually opened.[2]
Life
Bennis was born in Corkamore (Clarina), County Limerick, in the southern part of Ireland.[1] He was probably born in 1790, although there are also sources giving his birth year as 1793.[1] His first work was as a grocer, but while still a young man he relocated to Liverpool in mainland Britain where, it is thought, he joined the Quakers.[3]
In 1816 he published "The Principles of the one Faith Professed by All Christians",[4] which would be reprinted in Paris 1826. Bennis then moved to London, possibly also returning subsequently to work in Limerick,[5] before in 1823 crossing The Channel and settling in Paris.[1] Various further literary works followed including "Traveller's Pocket Diary and Student's Journal" and a "Treatise on Life Assurance". He is believed to have undertaken further travel, but between 1830 and 1836 he was employed in Paris as the director of a "Foreigners' Library" (" librairie des étrangers") established in the city by the pioneering editor Martin Bossange and the industrialist-politician Antoine-Augustin Renouard.[3]
During his Paris years Bennis also took work as an insurance agent, and was at one stage employed as a librarian by the
He was still living in Paris at the time of the
George Geary Bennis died in Paris in January 1866, and was buried in the city. Sources now focus on his will and estate. His nephew and executor, Edward Bennis, arrived from Lancashire in England shortly after his death, to find that his uncle's coin collection had already been stolen.[3] Nevertheless, what remained was more than 10,000 books, and these in due course formed a substantial kernel for a public library in Limerick.[2]
References
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/2132. Retrieved 2 September 2015. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ a b c d Jim Kemmy. "George Geary Bennis" (PDF). The Old Limerick Journal – French edition. p. 104. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f William Axon (WEAA) (1885). "Bennis, George Geary (1790–1866), author, was". Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900. Smith, Elder & Co. & Wikisource. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
- ^ George Geary Bennis (1816). The Principles of the one Faith Professed by All Christians.
- ^ "Quakers have a meeting house in Limerick again". The Irish Times. 13 January 1998. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
- ISBN 9780752493657.
- ^ Nick Rabbitts (22 November 2013). "New book focuses on little known facts of Limerick". Limerick Leader. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
- ^ Joseph Smith (1867). A descriptive catalogue of Friends' books : or books written by members of the Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers, from their first rise to the present time, interspersed with critical remarks and occasional biographical notices. Vol. 1.