Richard Bennett (governor)
Richard Bennett | |
---|---|
Governor of the Virginia Colony | |
In office 30 April 1652 – 31 March 1655 | |
Preceded by | Sir William Berkeley |
Succeeded by | Edward Digges |
Member of the Virginia Governor's Council | |
In office 1639 – 1675 | |
Member of the House of Burgesses for Warrosquyoake | |
In office 1629 | |
Preceded by | Edward Bennett |
Succeeded by | John Atkins |
Personal details | |
Born | by February 1608 Virginia Colony, British America |
Spouse | Mrs Mary Ann Utie |
Children | Richard, Anna Bennett Bland Codd, Elizabeth Scarborough |
Parent | Thomas Bennett |
Profession | Governor, military officer, planter |
Richard Bennett (1608 – 12 April 1675) was an English planter and Governor of the Colony of Virginia, serving 1652–1655. He had first come to the Virginia colony in 1629 to represent his merchant uncle Edward Bennett's business, managing his plantation known as Bennett's Welcome in Warrascoyack (later known as Isle of Wight County).[1] Two decades later, Bennett immigrated to the Maryland colony with his family, and settled on the Severn River in Anne Arundel County.[2]
Bennett also acquired his own land patents, ultimately owning and developing thousands of acres in Virginia and Maryland. Initially, he settled with other Puritans in
Early and family life
Born in
Career
After assuming management of his uncle's Virginia business interests and taking his seat in the
Governor Francis Wyatt with the consent of the Crown in London appointed Bennett as a member of the Governor's Council in 1639–42, and he would intermittently serve in what was the colony's upper house (and highest court) for the rest of his life, albeit with interruptions during an unstable era. In 1646, near the beginning of the English Civil War, Puritans from Nansemond formed part of the force sent by Virginia Governor William Berkeley to restore order in Maryland after the "Plundering Time".[citation needed]
In 1648, under political and religious pressure during the English Civil War, and upon the invitation of new Maryland governor William Stone of Hungers Creek, Bennett became one of the leaders of the Virginia Puritans who received a grant from Lord Baltimore and established a settlement on the Severn River in Anne Arundel County, Maryland.[10][11] There, Bennett received at least one land grant of 250 acres on the banks of the Severn River near the Broadneck Peninsula known as the Towne Neck or later Greenberry Point, and returned to Virginia for settlers on what they called "Providence".[12][2] He subsequently received two large grants of 1150 and 1250 acres called Upper Bennett and Lower Bennett on the Clifts of Patuxent upon which he settled associates from Nansemond. From 1651 until 1657-8, Bennett held a parliamentary commission for Virginia, during which time (in 1655 as discussed below) he returned to England to oppose Lord Baltimore's claim to Maryland.[2]
Meanwhile, Virginia Governor William Berkeley, who had been appointed in 1641, was sympathetic to the Crown during the English Civil War. Sir William Berkeley even fought for the deposed King Charles before returning to Virginia to quell raids by Native Americans on the relatively young colony. But on 12 March 1652, in a negotiation partly arranged by Bennett, Berkeley surrendered to representatives of Cromwell's Commonwealth government when they arrived in Virginia, and the colony's secretary Mathew Kemp became Virginia's acting governor.
The Virginia
On 30 March 1655, Bennett voluntarily abandoned his Virginia office (the House of Burgesses electing fellow planter Edward Digges governor in his stead), and sailed for England to see Oliver Cromwell.[13]
On 30 November 1657, Bennett, having returned to the colonies, signed the treaty with
In 1665 Bennett (or possibly his son of the same name who represented Baltimore County in Maryland's Assembly)[2] patented 2500 acres on the north bank of Wicomico Creek, in what is now Wicomico County, Maryland. The plantation became known as Bennett's Adventure.
In 1667 Bennett led English colonial forces against a four vessel Dutch fleet maurauding through the Hampton Roads area.[14]
In 1672,
Personal life
Richard Bennett was the son of Thomas Bennett (1570–1616) of Wiveliscombe, Somerset, England.[16] In 1666, Secretary Thomas Ludwell wrote to Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington that Richard Bennett seemed to be of the same family, sharing the same coat of arms (also shared by the Bennetts of North Bavant, Wiltshire). Biographer John Boddie, however, discounted the accuracy of the report.[17]
By 1642, Richard Bennett married Mrs. Mary Ann Utie, the widow of councillor John Utie Sr.[18] She and Utie had three sons: John Utie Jr. (1620-1642), Capt. Nathaniel Utie (d. 1675) and George Utie (d.1678), and she died slightly before him[19] Bennetts children, all born in the 1640s, were:
- Richard Bennett Jr. married Henrietta Maria Neale, daughter of James Neale. They had daughter Susannah Bennett Darnall Lowe (1666-1714) and son Richard Bennett, 3rd (1667-1749). Bennett prepared his will 29 Jan 1666 in Maryland prior to his voyage to England, likely to represent his father's business interests. He died there by 6 May 1667, the date his will was probated. Both children were born in England but returned to Maryland in 1677, two years after their grandfather's death. (Richard 3rd had inherited the bulk of Governor Bennett's estate). Bennett's widow later married Philemon Lloyd.
- Anna Bennett (died November 1687 in Cecil County, Maryland), first married Virginia merchant and speaker of the House of Burgesses Theodorick Bland of Westover in 1660[20] and had three sons: Theodorick Bland, Richard Bland (who had many notable descendants), and John Bland, great-grandfather of Chancellor Theodorick Bland of Maryland.[21] Her second marriage was to immigrant, burgess and Col. St. Leger Codd(1680-1732), and they had one son, also named St. Leger Codd (1680-1732).[21]
- Elizabeth Bennett (died 1719), who became the third wife of Col. Charles Scarborough of Accomac County, the son of councilor Edmund Scarborough (1617-1671) and his wife, the former Mary Litleton,[22] and who bore at least eight children, of whom six survived her.
Death and legacy
Bennett probably died on his Virginia plantation, although many descendants would also live in Maryland, including his grandson Richard Bennett III. He is considered one of the founders of Annapolis, which later became that colony's capital. The Wicomico County, Maryland house built by the next owner of Bennett's Adventure in the eighteenth century still stands, and in 1975 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[23]
Bennett's descendants include
See also
- Colony of Virginia
- Governor's Palace
- List of colonial governors of Virginia
- History of Virginia
- Bennett's Adventure
Literature
- Claus Bernet: Bennett, Richard (1609–1675), in: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, vol. 35, Nordhausen 2014, Sp. 43–45.
References
- Encyclopedia Virginia/Dictionary of Virginia Biography. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
- ^ a b c d Papenfuse, Edward C.; Day, Alan F.; Jordan, David W.; Stiverson, Gregory A., eds. (1979). A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, 1635-1789. Vol. 1. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 129.
- ^ Boddie, 52. Quoted from Virginia Magazine (Vol 30, page 360).
- ^ Lossing, Benson John (1901). Harper's Encyclopædia of United States History from 458 A.D. to 1902. Harper & Brothers. p. 544.
- ^ EV
- ^ a b Tyler, Lyon Gardiner (1915). Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. pp. 47.
- ^ Warfield, p. 6
- ^ Cynthia Miller Leonard, The Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond: Virginia State Library 1978) p. 8
- ^ Warfield, Joshua Dorsey (1905). The Founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, Maryland: A Genealogical and Biographical Review from wills, deeds and church records. Kohn & Pollock. pp. 41.
- ^ Warfield, pp. 7-8
- ^ Boddie, 17th Century Isle of Wight County, Virginia p. 54
- ^ Warfield, p. 8
- ^ a b Boddie, pp. 62-73
- ^ Boddie, p. 75
- ^ Boddie, p. 76, 80
- ^ Parish Records, 1558-1635, Somerset Archives reference D/P/WIV 2/1/1. Note that his mother isn't named nor is that the case for any of Thomas's children. She had long been misidentified as Anstice Thomson Alias Spicer (a legitimate surname at the time) but that women married another Thomas Bennett in nearby Milverton. Her children there are well-documented.
- ^ Boddie, p.266-267.
- ^ Boddie, Colonial Surrey, p. 41.
- ^ Michael Cooley, A Case Study in Ancestor Abuse: Mary Ann Utie Bennett, available at http://bogusgenealogy.com/viewer.pl?2019-10-22-maryann.html
- ^ Gundersen, Joan; Dictionary of Virginia Biography. "Anna Bennett Bland (d. 1687)". Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
- ^ a b Hunter, Joseph (1895). "Bland". In Clay, John W. (ed.). Familiae Minorum Gentium. Vol. II. London: The Harleian Society. pp. 421–427.
- ^ Wise, Jennings Cropper (1911). Ye Kingdome of Accawmacke, or The Eastern Shore of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century, p. 126. Richmond: The Bell Book and Stationery Co.
- ^ Paul B. Touart (May 1998). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Bennett's Adventure" (PDF). Maryland Historical Trust. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
- ^ a b Sons of the American Revolution (1894). "Roll of Members". Yearbook. The Republic Press. p. 198.
- ^ ISBN 0-8063-0559-2.