Re: Thomas Bentley, @1700 in Boston?
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In reply to:
Re: Thomas Bentley, @1700 in Boston?
7/25/99
I am a direct descendant of the William Bentley you speak of who came from England to Elizabeth City County, Virginia in 1624.He was 36 years old when he came and so this puts his birth at around 1589.His only known children are William II and Richard.Richard married twice.Little is known of William II but he did have 2 children; Willaim III and a Daughter named Elizabeth who married a ______ LEARY.Richard was born about 1636, probably in Elizabeth City County.
Richard had 6 known children by his first wife Jane and one know child (John) by his secoand wife Lydia Mann.All the children born in the range of 1662-1679.
So far I have not been able to find that Thomas Bentley Sr. born about 1700 in North Carolina is related to this line of Bentleys but it would certainly tickle me to find that they do.I search every day for a link for Thomas to the William Bentley line.
Here is what I have on William Bentley b. 1589 in England:
VIRGINIA MAGAZINE VOL I P. 191
(28) William BENTLEY, [I] of Kiccoughtan, in the Corporation of Elizabeth City
(Virginia) "a new planter who came over into this country at his own charges
in the JACOB, this present year, 1624;" for his first dividend 50 acres between
Newport News and Blunt Point. Granted by Wyatt, December 1st, 1624.
NOTE
[I] William Bentley was born 1589, and was a member of the House of Burgess
from Nutmeg Quarter, October, 1629. (Virginia)
Old Kecoughtan, Elizabeth City County, VA - Old Records; Wm. & Mary Qtrly, Vol. 9, No. 2
OLD KECOUGHTAN.p.83
There are in the records of Elizabeth City county the details of a suit in
ejectment, which are interesting not only for the legal phases that illustrate
the course of law in the colony, but for the information they give about the
early settlement of Elizabeth City county.When the first emigrants arrived
in Virginia, they found an Indian village near Point Comfort, called
Kecoughtan, or Kicoughtan, or Kiccotan.There was in the neighborhood
a large open country of two or three thousand acres in which the Indians
raised their corn, beans and tobacco.
"Cavaliers and Pioneers, Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants,
1623-1800, Richard, VA: Dietz, 1934, Vol 1 (of 5 vols.), p. 5 (Patent Book No.
1-Part 1).The Abstracting and Indexing was done by Nell Marion Nugent of the
Virginia Land Office, Richmond, Virginia.
"WILLIAM BENTLEY, 50 acres, Dec. 1, 1624, page 24.In the Corporation of
Elizabeth City, a new planter who came to this country at his own charges
in the Jacop in 1624.As his first divident, between Newport News and
Blunt Point, adj. Giles Allington and Thos. Godbye."
SOUTHERN HISTORICAL FAMILES by Boddie, Appendix V pp. 167-168
The Bently (Bentley) Family
"WILLIAM BENTLEY of ELIZABETH CITY COUNTY, VIRGINIA was born 1588/9 and
died probably after 1663.He seems to have been the ancestor of the North
Carolina Bentley's, though the Elizabeth City County records have been mostly
destroyed, and it cannot be proved that he was the father of Richard Bentley
and his brother William who settled in the 1660's in what later became
Perquimans Co., N.C.Hotten's EMIGRANTS shows William Bentley, aged 36, who
came over in the JACOB in 1624, living in the MUSTER of January 25, 1624/5 in
the family of Farrar (Pharaoh) Flinton, aged 36, and his wife Joane, aged 38.
who came over in the ELIZABETH in 1612.Bentley is probably a relative of the
Flinton's, as he is not shown among the five servants in the MUSTER, but along
with the husband and wife.On December 1, 1624, William Bentley was granted 50
acres in the Corporation of Elizabeth City. "being a new planter who came to
this country at his own charge in the JACOB in 1624", and on the same date
Thomas Godby, yeoman and ancient planter, was granted 100 acres adjoining
(NUGENT, Cavaliers & Pioneers, p.5).
"In March, 1628/9 William Bentley of Elizabeth City Co. was brought to
trial before the General Court for killing his neighbor, Thomas Godby, in a
brawl in a tavern, Godby apparently being drunk at the time.Bentley was
condemned to death for manslaughter by the jury, but escaped execution by
appealing to the ancient law of 'benefit of Clergy' (i.e., proving that he
could read and write, and appealing to the Church Court (the Ordinary), which
usually set people free when they had these qualifications).The testimony in
this case is given fully in Boddie's COLONIAL SURRY (pp.61-63).Bentley
evidently survived, for grants to others September 24, 1645 and January 9,
1662/3, mention his land as though he were still living (NUGENT, op.cit.,pp.159
and 420).An Elizabeth Bentley, claimed as a transportee of Thomas Normanton
in a grant to him of 259 acres in Elizabeth City Co., April 11, 1635 (NUGENT,
p.37) was probably William Bentley's wife."