BENTLEY, EDWARD; b. West Horndon, Essex; adm.; QS; elected head to Trinity Coll. Cambridge 1595, adm. scholar 1596; BA 1599/1600; MA 1603; ordained deacon 25 Sep 1608, priest 25 Sep 1609, aged 31 (both London); Curate, St. Mary-at-Hill, London; a legatee in the will of John Bowle (qv), dated 16 Apr 1637, in which Bowle mentions their friendship of forty-six years. [Perhaps Edward Bentley, son of Anthony Bentley, bapt. Belchamp Walter, Essex 15 Dec 1577 (IGI)]
BENTINCK, WILLIAM; b.; adm. Jan 1803 (Clapham); in school list May 1803, Oct 1803; left 1805. [Presumably William Frederik Christiaan Bentinck, Graf von Bentinck, second son of Jan Carel Bentinck, Graf von Bentinck, and Lady Jemima Ellen de Reede de Ginkell, eldest dau. of Frederick de Ginkell, 6th Earl of Athlone; b. 15 Nov 1787; Chamberlain to King of Holland; m. 16 Apr 1841 Countess Pauline Albertine, second dau., of Frederick Francis, Graf von Münnich; d. 8 Jun 1855. No other William Bentinck among the descendants of the 1st Earl of Portland seems to have been of the right age to have been at the school between 1803 and 1805]
BENTINCK, WILLIAM HENRY EDWARD, elder son of Lord Edward Charles Cavendish Bentinck (qv); b. 2 Feb 1784; adm. 3 Jul 1794 (Clapham); in school lists 1795, 1797, 1801; Christ Church, Oxford, matr. 4 Feb 1802, Canoneer Student; BA 1805; MA 1808; private secretary to his uncle, William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (qv), when Prime Minister; ordained priest 7 Feb 1808 (York); Rector of Sigglesthorne, Yorks., 21 Mar 1808 (still 1829); Canon Residentiary of Westminster 7 Oct 1809- Oct 1864; instrumental in getting the knee-breeches which used to be worn by the KSS abolished in 1843; built and endowed at his own cost Holy Trinity, Bessborough Gardens, completed 1852; Clerk of Signet (sinecure) 11 Dec 1802 - 7 Aug 1851, when office abolished; m. 19 Jul 1814 Frances, dau. of Ven. Thomas Constable, Rector of Sigglesthorne, Yorks., and Archdeacon Yorkshire East Riding; d. 29 Sep 1868.
BENTINCK, LORD EDWARD CHARLES CAVENDISH, brother of William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (qv); b. 3 Mar 1744; in school list 1754; a boarder at Mrs Morel’s house, where he “occupied as many as two or three rooms” (Bentham, Works, x, 27); Christ Church, Oxford, matr. 7 Nov 1761; Grand Tour (France, Netherlands, Gemany) 1764-6; MP Lewes 23 Dec 1766-8, Carlisle 1768-74, Nottinghamshire 11 Jan 1775-96, Clitheroe 1796-1802; m. 23 Dec 1782 Elizabeth, eldest dau. of Richard Cumberland (qv); d. at Brussels 8 Oct 1819.
BENTHAM, JOSEPH, son of Rev. Joseph Bentham DD, Rector of Broughton, Northants., and Frances, sister of Lewis Maidwell (qv); bapt. 8 Jun 1653; adm.; KS 1669; Peterhouse, Cambridge, adm. pens. 22 Feb 1670/1, Hale Scholar 5 May 1671 (see his father’s letter of 8 May 1671 to Sir Joseph Williamson (qv), CSP Dom 1671, 221-2), matr. 1671; BA 1674/5; MA 1678; DD 1696; Fellow of Peterhouse 1677-87; ordained; Minor Canon of Westminster; Rector of Stevenage, Herts., from 29 Oct 1680; subscribed the petition to William of Orange requesting him to assume the Crown, 1688; an unsuccessful candidate for the Mastership of Peterhouse 1699; Prebendary of Lincoln from 7 Mar 1703/4; Rector of Abington Pigotts, Cambs., from 25 Jun 1718; m. ---, dau. of Thomas Ducket, Steeple Morden, Cambs.; d. 5 Apr 1723.
BENTHAM, JEREMY, son of Jeremiah Bentham, attorney-at-law, Red Lion Street, Houndsditch, London, and his first wife Alicia, widow of --- Whitehorne, and sister of George Woodward Grove (qv); b. 15 Feb 1747/8; adm. 1755; (Morel's according Bentham's memoir); elected KS 1759, but remained a Town Boy; left Aug 1760; Queen’s Coll. Oxford, matr. 28 Jun 1760; BA 1764; MA 1767; adm. Lincoln’s Inn 26 Jan 1763, called to bar 6 Nov 1769; did not practise his profession, but resident in chambers in Middle Temple 1766-9, Lincoln’s Inn from 1769; turned his mind to science and to speculations on politics and jurisprudence; his Fragment on Government, a masterly criticism of Blackstone’s Commentaries, appeared anonymously in 1776; friend and protege of Earl of Shelburne (later 1st Marquis of Lansdowne); a successful promoter of law reform and one of the ablest propagandists of the doctrine of utilitarianism; exercised great influence in the fields of ethics and jurisprudence; his published works were collected and edited by Sir John Bowring and John Hill Burton, in an eleven-volume edition published in 1843; his reminiscences of his school-days at Westminster appear in vol. x, 26-35, where it will be seen that his opinion of the instruction, discipline and usages of the School in his day was by no means flattering; two small MS volumes containing school and college exercises by him are preserved in the School Library; d. unm. 6 Jun 1832; his skeleton is preserved at University Coll., London. DNB.
BENTHALL, WILLIAM, son of William Searle Benthall (previously Bentall), Totnes and Buckfast Abbey, Devon, woollen manufacturer and banker, and Mary Ann, dau. of William Marshall MD, Totnes; b. 21 Jan 1803; adm. (G) 7 Jun 1815; KS 1817; elected head to Trinity Coll. Cambridge 1821, adm. pens. 9 Jun 1821, scholar 1822, matr. Mich. 1821; a banker at Totnes c. 1823-41, when his partnership went bankrupt; m. 8 Sep 1831 Elizabeth Charlotte Cornish; d. 16 Jun 1877.
BENTHALL, JOHN, brother of William Benthall (qv); b. 8 Feb 1808 [but if so, too young for ordination as priest 1830 ?]; adm. (G) 12 Jan 1818; Min. Can. 1819; KS 1820; elected head to Trinity Coll. Cambridge 1824, adm. pens. 12 Jun 1824, scholar 1825, matr. Mich. 1824; BA 1828; MA 1831 (incorp. Oxford 14 May 1853); ordained deacon (London) 14 Jun 1829, priest 5 Jun 1830; Usher at the School 1829-46, Housemaster 1832-46; Chaplain to Archibald Kennedy, 2nd Marquis of Ailsa (qv), 1846-70; Vicar of Willen, Bucks., from 1852; m. 1st, 20 May 1835 Harriet, youngest child of Joseph Everett, Salisbury, Wilts.; m. 2nd, 7 May 1861 Frances, dau. of William Levi, Moulsoe, nr. Newport Pagnell, Bucks.; d. 1 Sep 1887.
BENTHALL, ARTHUR, brother of William Benthall (qv); b. 5 Apr 1825; adm. 21 Jan 1833 (Benthall's); QS 1838; left 1839; Clare Hall, Cambridge, adm. pens. 10 Oct 1843, matr. Lent 1844; BA 1848; MA 1851; adm. Lincoln’s Inn 3 Nov 1843, called to bar 23 Nov 1848; a clerk in the Post Office 1850, subsequently Assistant Secretary; m. 1 Sep 1855 Alice Margaret, dau. of Rev. John Reynolds Wardale, Rector of Higham Gobion, Beds.; d. 16 Feb 1882.
BENT, JOHN, eldest son of James Bent MD, Bafford, near Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffs.; bapt. Newcastle under Lyme 30 Dec 1776 (IGI); adm.; KS (aged 14) 1791; Capt. of the School 1795; elected head to Trinity Coll. Cambridge 1796, adm. pens. 25 May 1796, scholar 29 Apr 1797, did not matr.; adm. Lincoln’s Inn 12 Jun 1798; d. from a wound caused by the accidental discharge of a fowling piece, 12 Nov 1798.