Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/240

Bennet uncle named Mr. English, of Brightling, who directed his studies to the church in order that he might present him to the living of that parish, of which he was patron. A rector was appointed ad interim, but when asked to vacate he refused, and Bennet did not succeed to the benefice until 1658. In the meantime he had acquired reputation as a preacher first at Hooe, and afterwards at Burwash, both in his native county. When the act of uniformity was passed he refused to comply with its demands, and was accordingly ejected from his living on 23 Feb. 1661-2. He stayed, however, at Brightling for twenty years, and opened a school, which flourished at first, until dispersed by the plague in 1665. While his successor in the living fled the parish for his own safety, Bennet remained at his post, and continued in unremitting attendance on the parishioners, who died in great numbers. This endeared him to the people of the neighbourhood to such a degree, that when the five-mile act came into operation no one could be found to inform against him, and he remained unmolested. 'His motto,' says Calamy, 'was, God's good providence be mine inheritance, which was answered to him; for when his family was increased he was surprisingly provided for, so that though he never abounded, he never was in any distressing want. He generally had a few boarders and scholars, which was at once a help and a diversion.' He afterwards undertook the charge of a nonconformist congregation at Hellingly, and latterly at Hastings, where he died in 1707. He does not appear to have been altogether free from the superstitious fancies of his day, if we may credit a tale of witchcraft long current at Brightling, in which he is represented as having played a conspicuous part. His eldest son Joseph (1665-1726), who officiated for many years in the English presbyterian congregation at the Old Jewry, London, died on 21 Feb. 1725-6.

[Palmer's Nonconf. Memorial, 2nd ed., iii. 313-15; Admissions to the College of St. John the Evangelist, ed. J. E. B. Mayor, pt. i. 72, xxiii.; Lower's Worthies of Sussex, pp. 345-6; Sussex Archæol. Coll., xviii. 111-13, xxv. 156-7; MS. Addit. 6358, ff. 35, 44; Wilson's Dissenting Churches, ii. 331-8; Calamy's Funeral Sermon, pp. 35-47; Calamy's Historical Account of My Own Life, ed. Rutt, i. 348, ii. 487.]

 BENNET, ROBERT (d. 1617), bishop of Hereford, was the son of Leonard Bennet of Baldock, Hertfordshire. He was one of Whitgift's pupils at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was admitted minor fellow of that society on 8 Sept. 1567, and major fellow on 7 April 1570. On 15 July 1572, being then three years a B.A., he was incorporated at Oxford. He was chaplain to Lord Burghley. In 1583 he was master of the hospital of St. Cross, Winchester. On 24 Jan. of the following year, the day after the death of Watson, bishop of Winchester, he wrote a letter to the lord treasurer on the state of the diocese, declaring that it was overrun with seminarists and in sore need of jurisdiction, and expressing his hope that a wise successor would be appointed to the late bishop. Meanwhile, he advises that the dean be admonished to keep hospitality (, Whitgift, ii. 261). In 1595 he was appointed Dean of Windsor, and on the Feast of St. George in the following year he was constituted a sworn registrar of the order of the Garter. He was consecrated to the see of Hereford on 20 Feb. 1602-3. He increased and adorned the buildings of the see. His only literary work appears to have been a Latin preface to a translation by William Whitaker, his friend and colleague at Trinity, of Bishop Jewell's 'Defense against Father Harding,' Geneva, 1585, fol. He was, Strype says, a good and learned man. He died on 25 Oct. 1617.

[Cole's Athenæ in Addit. MSS. 5863, f. 23; Wood's Fasti Oxon. i. 191, ed. Bliss; Godwin, De Præsulibus; Strype's Life of Whitgift, Oxford, 1822.]  BENNET, ROBERT (1605–1683), parliamentary colonel, was the eldest son of Richard Bennet, of Hexworthy, in Lawhitton, Cornwall, by Mary, daughter of Oliver Clobery, of Bradstone, Devon. During the civil war he was one of the chief Cornish adherents of the Commonwealth, and governed St. Michael's Mount and St. Mawes castle in its interest. He formed one of the thirteen members appointed as a council of state on 30 April 1653, and represented Cornwall among the 139 persons summoned to attend at Whitehall as a parliament on 4 July 1653; ten days later he became one of thirty-one members forming an interim council of state. In the parliament of 1654 he was elected both for the boroughs of Launceston and Looe; in that of 1659 he sat for the former borough. After the death of Oliver Cromwell he advocated the recognition of Richard as protector, his predilection being for a commonwealth, though he recognised the necessity, in times 'so full of distraction,' of a single person and two houses. After the restoration he retired, without molestation, into private life, and was buried at Lawhitton 7 July 1683, aged 78. Colonel Bennet's charge at the Truro sessions, April 1649, was printed under the title of 'King Charle's (sic) triall justified,' and William Hicks 