Maj.-Gen. Richard Bennett, 1st Protectorate Governor of Virginia

Governor Richard Bennett NEVER MARRIED ANN BARHAM. That was Richard "Not the Governor" Bennett. Yes there were two Richard Bennetts, yes they both had fathers named Thomas and sons named Richard Jr.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bennett_%28Governor%29 Richard Bennett (6 August 1609 – 12 April 1675) was an English Governor of the Colony of Virginia.

Born in Wiveliscombe, Somerset, Bennett served as governor from 30 April 1652, until 2 March 1655.[1][2] His uncle, Edward Bennett, was a wealthy merchant from London and one of the few Puritan members of the Virginia Company, who had travelled to Virginia Colony in 1621 and settled in Warrascoyack, renamed Isle of Wight County in 1637. Richard Bennett followed his uncle there as a representative of his business interests, and quickly rose to prominence, serving in the House of Burgesses in 1629 and 1631[3] and becoming a leader of the small Puritan community south of the James River, taking them from Warrasquyoake to Nansemond beginning in 1635. He was a member of the Governor Francis Wyatt's Council in 1639-42. In 1648, he fled to Anne Arundel, Maryland.[4]

Governor William Berkeley had been sympathetic to the Crown during the Civil War, but on 12 March 1652, he surrendered to representatives of the Commonwealth, and Bennett, then back in Virginia, was unanimously elected by the House of Burgesses on 30 April. Though little is known about his time as governor, it is believed that he was popular with the colonists.[3] While Governor of Virginia, he also spent much time directing affairs in Maryland, negotiating with the Susquehannock tribe and signing a treaty with them on 5 July 1652, whereby they ceded their claims to "all the land lying from the Patuxent River unto Palmer's Island on the western side of the bay of Chesapeake, and from Choptank River to the northeast branch which lies to the northward of Elk River on the eastern side of the bay." (Some of this area continued to be claimed by the Nanticoke Indian Tribe, however.) He helped ensure Puritan control over the colony of Maryland, then on 30 March 1655, voluntarily abandoned his office and left for England to see Cromwell.[5]

On 30 November 1657, Bennett, having returned to the colonies, signed the treaty with Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, which recognised the latter's claim to Maryland.[2] He returned to the governor's Council, and also became a Major-General, leading forces against a marauding Dutch fleet of four vessels committing depredations at Hampton Roads in 1667.[6]

In 1672, George Fox, founder of the Quaker movement, visited the Virginia Puritans in Nansemond and succeeded in converting most of them to his faith, including Bennett.[7] Family

Richard Bennett is thought to be a son of Thomas Bennett (1570–1616) and Antsie Tomson of Wiveliscombe. 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).[8]

By 1642, Richard Bennett married Mary Ann Longworth (widow of John Utie, Jr.[9]); their children were:

• Richard Bennett Jr., married Henrietta Maria Neale, daughter of James Neale of Maryland; drowned at sea 1676
• Anna Bennett (died November 1687) first married Theodorick Bland of Westover and had three sons: the original surveyor of both Alexandria and Williamsburg Theodorick Bland, Richard Bland (who had many notable descendants), and John Bland, who was the great-grandfather of Chancellor Theodorick Bland of Maryland.[10] Her second marriage was to Col. St. Leger Codd, and they had one son, also named St. Leger Codd.[10]
• Elizabeth Bennett, married Col. Charles Scarborough of Accomac County, the son of Edmund Scarborough[11]

Bennett's descendants include Richard Bland II,[12] John Randolph of Roanoke[13] Henry Lee III,[13]Robert E. Lee,[13] and Roger Atkinson Pryor.[12] See also

Colony of Virginia
Governor's Palace
List of colonial governors of Virginia
History of Virginia
Bennett's Adventure

References

1. Lossing, Benson John (1901). Harper's Encyclopædia of United States History from 458 A.D. to 1902. Harper & Brothers. pp. 544.
2. a b Tyler, Lyon Gardiner (1915). Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. pp. 47.
3. a b 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.
4. Boddie, 17th Century Isle of Wight County, Virginia p. 54
5. Boddie, p. 62-73
6. Boddie, p. 75
7. Boddie, p. 76, 80
8. Boddie, p.266-267.
9. Boddie, Colonial Surrey, p. 41
10. a b Hunter, Joseph (1895) "Bland" in Clay, John W. Familiae Minorum Gentium II London: The Harleian Society pp. 421–427
11. 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.
12. a b Sons of the American Revolution (1894) "Roll of Members" Yearbook The Republic Press p. 198
13. a b c Boddie, John Bennett (1973). Seventeenth Century Isle of Wight County, Virginia. Genealogical Publishing Company. pp. 79–80. ISBN 0-8063-0559-2.

On November 21, 1621, Edward Bennett, a rich merchant of London, was granted a patent for a plantation upon the condition of settling two hundred emigrants. Associated with him in that patent were his brother, Robert Bennett, and his nephew, Richard Bennett, Thomas Ayres, Thomas Wiseman and Richard Wiseman; and in February, 1622, the "Sea Flower" arrived with one hundred and twenty settlers, under command of Captain Ralph Hamor, one of the Council. Among them were Rev. William Bennett and George Harrison, kinsmen of Edward Bennett. Their place of settlement was called Warrosquoyacke, or sometimes "Edward Bennett's Plantation," and was located at the place on James River known as the "Rocks," the estate of the late Dr. John W. Lawson, who for many years represented this county in the General Assembly of the State, the Second Congressional District in Congress, and this county in the late Constitutional Convention.

Richard Bennett was elected Governor of the VIRGINIA GENERAL ASSEMBLEY 30 March 1652 and was re-elected three successive terms. He was then sent as Commissioner to England by the House of Burgesses. Returning to Virginia in 1658 he was re-elected to the Counsel each year until his death. From 1662 he was Major General of the Virginia Forces. His descendents include General ROBERT E. LEE.

Sources

1. WARROSQUOYAKE IN VIRGINIA
2. Willey, Core, Bennett and Other Ancestors by Leroy Ellis Willie & Ted D. Jones
3. American Historical Review, XXVII, pp. 505-508
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bennett_(Governor)

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https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Bennett_Richard_bap_1609-ca_1675

Richard Bennett served as governor of Virginia (1652–1655), in the House of Burgesses (1629), and served two stints on the governor's Council (1642–1652; 1658–1675). Born into an English merchant family, he came to Virginia around 1628 to run his uncle's estate and set about acquiring thousands of acres of his own as well as importing Puritan settlers who helped provide him an important political base. In 1646, he led a force of Puritans to assist the exiled governor of Maryland and helped start a Puritan migration to the colony. After Parliament's defeat of Charles I in the English Civil Wars, Bennett negotiated the bloodless submission of the Virginia and Maryland colonies, which were loyal to the Crown. The General Assembly then elected him governor of Virginia, and during his term he tried but failed to politically unite the Chesapeake Bay colonies. Not long after Catholics and Puritans fought a bloody battle in Maryland, Bennett stepped down as governor, but in 1657 he helped negotiate a treaty that restored Maryland's charter rights. He then served on the governor's Council and, as a major general in the Virginia militia, helped defend the colony during the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665–1667). Bennett died early in 1675.

Bennett was one of the sons of Thomas Bennett, a member of a large family of English merchants who dealt extensively in international trade during the seventeenth century. His mother's name is unknown. Bennett was probably born in or near Wivelscombe, Somersetshire, England, where he was baptized on August 6, 1609. He could scarcely have avoided being involved in the young Virginia colony. His uncle Edward Bennett, one of the great London and Amsterdam merchants, was auditor of the Virginia Company of London and in 1621 patented a large property called Bennett's Welcome near the former Indian village of Warraskoyack in what became Isle of Wight County.

In about 1628 Richard Bennett traveled to Virginia to take over management of Bennett's Welcome. Two of his uncles and a younger brother had perished in the colony, but Richard Bennett thrived and used the transatlantic influence and affluence of his family to achieve almost immediate prominence as a prosperous planter and political leader in Virginia. He lived on another of Edward Bennett's properties, Bennett's Choice, on the Nansemond River, and during the 1630s patented more than 2,000 acres of land at Bennett Point and Parraketo Point. Eventually he amassed more than 7,000 acres in Virginia and Maryland, with much of it obtained through the headright system, which awarded him a right to 50 acres for each colonist he transported to Virginia. Overall his family sponsored the immigration of approximately 600 settlers, many of them Puritans, who were to provide him a base of political influence after 1640.

Bennett's political career began with his election to the House of Burgesses as a representative from Warrosquyoake in 1629, and he became a commissioner for that district two years later. He was appointed to the governor's Council in 1642, the same year that he patented 2,000 acres along the south bank of the Rappahannock River. During the turbulent years of the English Civil Wars and Protectorate, Bennett was the highest-ranking and most active Puritan leader in the Chesapeake. With his brother Philip Bennett he recruited three Puritan ministers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1642 to serve the Calvinists of Upper Norfolk County. Governor Sir William Berkeley and other Anglicans were hostile toward the Puritans, however, and made them unwelcome.

In 1646 Bennett organized a mercenary Puritan army to assist the exiled governor of Maryland, Leonard Calvert, in ousting a gang of brigands from his capital at Saint Marys City. Many of the mercenaries remained in Maryland and became the vanguard of a vast Puritan migration to that colony during the years between 1648 and 1650. Bennett's commercial and political connections by then included William Claiborne, of Virginia, and Maurice Thompson, the most influential of all the Puritan merchants of London. Throughout the period Bennett engaged in profitable commerce with England and the Netherlands.

On September 26, 1651, the English Council of State appointed Bennett and Claiborne to a four-man commission to force or negotiate the submission of the Chesapeake Bay colonies to the Commonwealth of England. Supported by a Parliamentary fleet, Bennett, Claiborne, and Edmund Curtis, who succeeded to the commission after the other two original members drowned during the transatlantic voyage, accepted Virginia's bloodless capitulation at Jamestown on March 12, 1652, and obtained the surrender of Maryland's leaders two weeks later.

The General Assembly then elected Bennett to the vacant office of governor of Virginia. He served from April 30, 1652, to March 31, 1655, with Claiborne as secretary of the colony. Their administration represented a spectacular temporary triumph for Maurice Thompson's London-based group of mercantile imperialists, which had significantly influenced the Chesapeake's commercial and political evolution since the 1620s. Hoping to achieve the elusive goal of a united, centrally administered Chesapeake, Bennett and Claiborne sought to abrogate Maryland's charter rights to the land north of the Potomac River. By appointing Protestants friendly to Virginia to offices in Maryland and placing like-minded militia colonels on the Council in Jamestown they brought a measure of stability to the Chesapeake. On July 5, 1652. Bennett and a select group of Virginia Puritan émigrés ended a decade of Indian warfare in Maryland by negotiating a comprehensive peace treaty with the powerful Susquehannocks, Claiborne's longtime business partners in the upper Chesapeake beaver trade.

Bennett's ambitious attempts to expand Virginia's political control throughout the Chesapeake region, with unprecedented authority accorded to the House of Burgesses, was a significant milestone, but such profound and rapid change was destined to be short-lived. Given the prevalent revolutionary turmoil in England, Bennett's government lacked the support it needed to withstand either the growing resentment of Virginia's planters toward the new Navigation Acts, designed as they were to terminate the profitable commerce between the colonies and the Netherlands that had helped make men like Bennett wealthy, or the resistance of Catholics and Anglicans to the ideological rigidity of the Puritan leadership in Maryland. The bloody Battle of the Severn on March 25, 1655, fought between the Catholic pro-Calvert forces and Puritans near Bennetts's own lands at Greenbury Point, Maryland, produced such gruesome atrocities that it probably precipitated Bennett's retirement from the governor's office six days later.

It is to Bennett's credit that no such turmoil occurred in Virginia and that even political rivals with religious differences respected the peaceful succession of power at Jamestown. In December 1656 the General Assembly appointed Bennett one of its lobbyists in London, but instead of acting to increase Virginia's power, at Cromwell's instigation he helped negotiate a treaty of November 30, 1657, with Cecil Calvert, second baron Baltimore, that restored Maryland's charter rights and original boundaries. Bennett served again on the governor's Council from 1658 until his death, much of the time during the second administration of his old adversary, Sir William Berkeley. From 1662 to 1672 he also served as the second major general ever appointed in the Virginia militia and helped defend the colony against invasion during the Second Anglo-Dutch War.

Bennett's political designs for a greater Virginia were thwarted, but in his personal life he achieved linkages across the many divisions that separated the two Chesapeake colonies. Late in the 1630s he married Maryann Utie, widow of Councillor John Utie. Their only son, Richard Bennett, attended Harvard College, married into a prominent Catholic family in Maryland, resided there for most of his life, and had a namesake son who became one of the wealthiest planters in Maryland. Bennett's daughters chose influential husbands from both colonies. Elizabeth Bennett married Charles Scarburgh, a Puritan from the Virginia Eastern Shore, and Anna Bennett first wed Theodorick Bland, of Virginia, and then married St. Leger Codd, of Northumberland County, Virginia, and Cecil County, Maryland.

Bennett bequeathed 5,300 acres of land on Maryland's Eastern Shore to three of his grandchildren and donated 300 acres to his local parish to be applied "towards the relief of four poor, aged, or impotent persons." Bennett died, probably at Bennett's Choice, between March 15, 1675, when he dated his will, and April 12, 1675, when it was proved in court.

Time Line

August 6, 1609 - Richard Bennett is baptized at Wivelscombe, Somersetshire, England. He is the son of Thomas Bennett, a member of a large family of English merchants who deal exclusively in international trade.

1621 - Edward Bennett, one of the great London and Amsterdam merchants and auditor of the Virginia Company of London, patents a large property called Bennett's Welcome near the former Indian village of Warraskoyack in what will become Isle of Wight County.

1628 - About this year, Richard Bennett travels to Virginia to take over management of Bennett's Welcome from his uncle, Edward Bennett. In the next ten years he will patent more than 2,000 acres of his own and amass more than 7,000 acres in Virginia and Maryland.

1629 - Richard Bennett is elected to the House of Burgesses as a representative from Warrosquyoake.

1631 - Richard Bennett becomes a commissioner for Warrosquyoake.

1640 - Having amassed thousands of acres of land in Virginia and Maryland and imported 600 settlers, many of them Puritans, Richard Bennett establishes a base of political influence.

1642 - Richard Bennett is appointed to the governor's Council. In the same year he patents 2,000 acres along the south bank of the Rappahannock River and recruits three Puritan ministers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony to serve the Calvinists of Upper Norfolk County.

1646 - Richard Bennett organizes a mercenary Puritan army to assist the exiled governor of Maryland, Leonard Calvert, in ousting a gang of brigands from his capital at Saint Mary's City.

1648–1650 - A vast Puritan migration to Maryland is led, in part, by a group of Puritan mercenaries who came to the colony in 1646 under the leadership of Richard Bennett.

September 26, 1651 - The English Council of State appoints Richard Bennett and William Claiborne to a four-man commission to force or negotiate the submission of the Chesapeake Bay colonies to the Commonwealth of England.

March 12, 1652 - Supported by a Parliamentary fleet, Richard Bennett, William Claiborne, and Edmund Curtis accept Virginia's bloodless capitulation at Jamestown. Two weeks later they obtain the surrender of Maryland's leaders as well.

July 5, 1652 - Governor Richard Bennett and a select group of Virginia Puritan émigrés end a decade of Indian warfare in Maryland by negotiating a comprehensive peace treaty with the powerful Susquehannocks.

March 25, 1655 - The bloody Battle of the Severn is fought between the Catholic pro-Calvert forces and Puritans near Governor Richard Bennett's own lands at Greenbury Point, Maryland.

March 31, 1655 - Richard Bennett vacates the office of governor of Virginia following the bloody Battle of the Severn, fought near his own lands at Greenbury Point, Maryland.

December 1656 - The General Assembly appoints Richard Bennett one of its lobbyists in London.

November 30, 1657 - Richard Bennett, acting as a lobbyist for the General Assembly in London, helps negotiate a treaty with Cecil Calvert, second baron Baltimore, that restores Maryland's charter rights and original boundaries.

1658–1675 - Richard Bennett serves on the governor's Council, much of the time during the second administration of his old adversary, Sir William Berkeley.

1662–1672 - Richard Bennett serves as the second major general ever appointed in the Virginia militia and helps defend the colony against invasion during the Second Anglo-Dutch War.

March 15, 1675 - Richard Bennett dates his will.

April 12, 1675 - Richard Bennett's will is proved in court. He dies sometime between March 15 and this date.

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"The Genealogists Reference Journal," Vol. 1, Part 1, June 1935, extracted from a record in the Public Record Office, London HCA 13.71 1656-7 BENNETT, RICHARD, ESQ. OF VA., NOW IN LONDON, AGED 49, BORN AT WILSCOMBE, SOMERSET, ENGLAND."

Governor Richard Bennett

Bennett of Nansemond County, Virginia Colony [1]

Arms: Gules a bezant between three demi lions rampant argent. [1]

Crest: Out of a mural coronet or, a lion's head gules, on the neck of a bezant.[1]

Name: Gov. Richard /Bennett/ [2]

Parentage and Family

Richard Bennett [3] was a nephew of Edward Bennett, a wealthy merchant in London and member of the Virginia Company. [1][4]

1608 Birth

Born in Wiveliscombe 1607/8. [5]

1622 Arrival on the "Sea Flower"

On November 21, 1621, Edward Bennett, a rich merchant of London, was granted a patent for a plantation upon the condition of settling two hundred emigrants. Associated with him in that patent were his brother, Robert Bennett, and his nephew, Richard Bennett, Thomas Ayres, Thomas Wiseman and Richard Wiseman; and in February, 1622, the "Sea Flower" arrived with one hundred and twenty settlers, under command of Captain Ralph Hamor, one of the Council. Among them were Rev. William Bennett and George Harrison, kinsmen of Edward Bennett. Their place of settlement was called Warrosquoyacke, or sometimes "Edward Bennett's Plantation," and was located at the place on James River known as the "Rocks," the estate of the late Dr. John W. Lawson, who for many years represented this county in the General Assembly of the State, the Second Congressional District in Congress, and this county in the late Constitutional Convention.[6]

Bennett had a plantation on the Nansemond River called Bennet's Welcome. [7]

It is known that three of his uncles ( Edward Bennett, merchant; Richard Bennett, and Captain Robert Bennett) all of London had founded a plantation in Virginia called "Bennet's Welcome:, and had spent some time in the new settlement.[8]

1622 Massacre

On the day the patent last mentioned was granted, Arthur Swaine, Captain Nathaniel Basse and others, undertook to establish another plantation in the same neighborhood. Captain Basse came over in person and his plantation was known as "Basse's Choice," and was situated on Warrosquoyacke (now Pagan) River. The houses of Captain Basse's Plantation were building when a great calamity happened to the infant colony. At midday on Good Friday, March 22, 1622, there were twelve hundred and forty inhabitants in the State of Virginia. Of these, three hundred and forty-seven, in a few hours, were killed by the Indians in the eighty settlements on the north and south sides of the James River, of which number fifty-three were residents of this county. [6]

1623 A Letter

Yours Out of the John and Frances.

I received with letters from Edwarde haresse and Robert Bennet out of Spain, the 27th of Maye the shippe arrived heare in saftie God be Thancked, and out of her I received
some 19 Buttes of exclent good wynes, 750 jarse of oylle, 16 Barelles of Resones of the Sonne, and 18 Barelles of Ryesse, tooe halfe hoghedes of Allmondes, 3 halfe hoghedes of wheate and one which was staved at seae, 18 hog-hedes of Olives and some 5 ferkenes of butter and one Chesse.
Also I received 1 chest and tooe barelles of Candells, with 3 packes of Linen Cloth marked in your marke and tooe dryfattes of Mr. Kinge's.
All these goodes came safe and well condisioned to my handes and the beste that i received since I came in to the lande, and I macke noe question but to macke you by God's helpe good profet one them, and your retorne From Bennetes Wellcome this 9th of June, 1623; signed, Loving Brother [9]
Census of 1624

The census of 1623-24 (February) showed as then living at "Worwicke-Squeak" and "Basse's Choice" fifty-three persons, "twenty-six having died since April last." Among those who had died were Mr. Robert Bennett, the brother of Edward Bennett, the rich London merchant, and first minister, Mr. William Bennett, doubtless one of the same family. [10]

1629-1631 House of Burgesses

Richard Bennett was a member of the House of Burgesses in 1629 and 1631, and member of the Council 1642-9, removing in the latter year to Maryland. [1][4]

1640 Marriage

About 1640 he married Mary Ann Utie, the widow of John Utie. They had issue: [1]

1644 Defeat of Charles I

In England, King Charles-I and his Army was defeated at Marston Moor in 1644.

1648 Virginia Population

The population of the Virginia Colony in 1648 was estimated to be about 15,000 English and 300 Negroes.

1649 Trial and Beheading of King Charles

The trial and beheading of King Charles-I was in 1649, and Virginia remained loyal to the crown.

1649 Dissenters to Maryland

He had been a leader of the south-of-James River Dissenters who moved to Maryland in 1649 [7]

1651 Return to Virginia

He returned to Virginia and in 1651 was appointed by Parliament one of the Commissioners to reduce Virginia and Maryland. He was Governor of the Colony from 30 April, 1652, to March, 1655. In 1658 he was again a member of the Council. [1][4]

1652 Document

Richard Bennett, William Claiborne and Edmond Curtis were instrumental in writing & signing a document with England that made "VA almost as free and independent as she was after the Revolutionary War."[8]

Governor of Virginia

He was elected Governor of Virginia and when Maryland was on the verge of war with the Indians, he headed a peace mission to them and arranged a satisfactory treaty. He was re-elected Govenor 3 successive terms and was sent as Comissioner to England by the House of Burgesses. [8]

1652 Named Governor of Virginia by Oliver Cromwell

He came back to Virginia in 1652 when Oliver Cromwell named him governor, after Cromwell deposed Charles I as King of England. [7]

Richard Bennett was elected Governor of the Virginia General Assembly 30 March 1652 and was re-elected three successive terms. [11]

1652 Articles of Surrender to Commonwealth

Articles of surrender in 1652 to the Commonwealth of England was agreed to by the House of Burgesses. The same year, Richard Bennett was elected Governor by the General Assembly replacing William Berkeley. Oliver Cromwell ignored Virginia and self-government went serenely on in '53, and Westmoreland County was created out of Northumberland County. [12]

1652 Parliamentary Commissioners over Virginia and Maryland

In 1652, William Clayborne and Richard Bennett (a Puritan from Nansemond County, Virginia) were appointed Parliamentary Commissioners over both Virginia and Maryland by the new Commonwealth of England Following the execution of Charles I in 1649, Maryland, not surprisingly, remained steadfastly Royalist, but for once she and Virginia were on the same side of the fence, as Virginia, too, continued to favor the monarchy (a considerable number of Royalists having removed to that Colony during the Civil War). Clayborne moved swiftly, and on the 5th of April 1652, a petition was signed by residents of the Isle of Kent 5th April 1652: promising to be true and faithful to the Commonwealth of England, without King or House of Lords. [12]

1655 to England

He was then sent as Commissioner to England by the House of Burgesses. [11]

1656-7 In London

1656-7, Bennett, Richard, Esq. of Virginia, Now in London, age 49. [5]

1658 Return from England

Returning to Virginia in 1658 he was re-elected to the Counsel each year until his death. [11]

1658 Return to Virginia

Returning to Virginia in 1658, he was re-elected to the council each year until his death. From 1662-72, he was Major-General of the forces in Virginia.[8]

1662 Major General of Virginia Forces

From 1662 he was Major General of the Virginia Forces. [11]

1666 Major General of Militia

In 1666 he was a Major-General of Militia, and in the "Sainsbury Abstracts" we find that in that year Thomas Ludwell, writing to Bennett, Lord Arlington, states that Major-General Bennett bore his (Arlington's) arms, and was he believed of his family. [1]

Quakers

He was a friend of the Friends (Quakers) for the rest of his life. [7]

1674 Will

His will is dated 15 March, 1674, and was proved in Nansemond 12 April, 1675. [1]

Will Abstracts from the Isle of Wight County, Virginia
1676 Death

When he died in 1675/6 he willed 2000 lbs of tobacco to each of four Nansemond Quaker neighbors. Two Quakers were among the executors of his will. [7]

Children

William Bennett married Mary Ann Utie, and they had the following children: [1]

1. Richard of Greenbury Point, Maryland, b. 1645, who was drowned shortly before his father's death, leaving issue; [1]
2. Anne Bennett, b. 1641, married, 1st, Theodorick Bland of Westover, 2nd, Colonel St. Leger Codd of Northumberland county, Virginia, and afterward of Maryland. She died 1687. [1]His daughter, Anne bennett also became a Quaker. [7]
3. A daughter, possibly Elizabeth b. 1645, married Col. Charles Scarborough of Accomac county, Virginia. [1]
4. Robert Bennett, a brother of Edward Bennett of London, also came to Virginia prior to January, 1623-4, and in 1648 Mr. Philip Bennett, administrator of Robert Bennett, had a grant of land in Nansemond county. [1]

Richard Bennett's descendents include General Robert E. Lee. [11]

Source:

↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 Virginia Heraldica: being a registry of Virginia gentry entitled to coat armor, with genealogical notes of the families. By Crozier, William Armstrong, 1864-1913, ed. Page 82. Published 1908. Publisher New York : The Genealogical Association. http://archive.org/stream/virginiaheraldic00croz/virginiaheraldic00...
↑ Source: #S-532784846 Page: Ancestry Family Tree Data: Text: https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tree/77305163/family
↑ ​Jamestowne Society: Bennett, Richard - A801; baptized 6 August 1609, died 1675, Nansemond Co.: Warosquoyacke: 1629 (Burgess); 1652-55 (Governor), 1639-51, 1665-67 (Councillor).] accessed 17 September 2021
↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 “Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Under the Editorial Supervision of Lyon Gardiner Tyler,” Vol. 1, page 47, Google Books, https://books.google.com/books/about/Encyclopedia_of_Virginia_Biogr.... Accessed 22 Sept. 2020.
↑ 5.0 5.1 The Genealogist Reference Journal, Vol. 1, part 1, for June 1935" contains an enlightening clue, extracted from a record in the Public Record Office, London H C A 13.71" 1656-7 Bennett, Richard, Esq. of Virginia, Now in London, age 49, born at Wilscombe, Somerset, England. Lewis' Topographical Dictionary, reveals that the place popularly called wilscombe is actually Wiveliscombe.. A search was made at Wiveliscombe Parish Church and through the efforts of Mr. John Bennett Boddie, a Bennett descendant and an ardent and scholarly genealogist, and by the kind permission of the minister, copies of entries from the register were made and later an extensive genealogy of the Bennett family was made.
↑ 6.0 6.1 American Historical Review, XXVII, pp. 505-508. https://web.archive.org/web/20161021010935/http://tdcweb.com/tdfhs/... (Posted from the Wayback Machine 28 Feb 2021)
↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 The Friendly Virginians; America's First Quakers by Jay Worrall, Jr. Iberian Publishing company, Athens, GA, c. 1994
↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Finding Your Forefathers In America by Archibald F. Bennett, Secretary and Librarian of The Genealogical Society at Salt Lake City, Utah, Bookcraft Company, Salt Lake City, Utah, c 1957.
↑ CCCLXVIII. Robert Bennett. A Letter To Edward Bennett, June 9, 1623, Papers of Lord Sackville, No. 6212, Document at Knole Park, Kent. In the Thomas Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress.
↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20161021010935/http://tdcweb.com/tdfhs/... (Posted from the Wayback Machine 28 Feb 2021)
↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 Willey, Core, Bennett and Other Ancestors by Leroy Ellis Willie & Ted D.Jones email 14 Oct 2000
↑ 12.0 12.1 http://www.usgennet.org/usa/md/state/isleofkent.html
Source: S-532784846 Repository: #R-1045314228 Title: Ancestry Family Trees Publication: Name: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.;
Repository: R-1045314228 Name: Ancestry.com
Wikipedia Entry with good sources
Puritans in Colonial Virginia