596327

[phelps.FTW]

[Brøderbund WFT Vol. 1, Ed. 1, Tree #0988, Date of Import: Oct 22, 1998]

Henry Bennett (1629)

John M. Bradbury, in an article recorded in the New England
Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol.29 p.167, of Ipswich,
explains his logic in establishing Lydia Perkins as the wife of Henry
Bennett. He also gives an account of a lawsuit which I found to give
life to Henry and the times in which he lived.
"Henry Bennett, born in England about, 1629, was in this country as
early as 1650, he married Lydia, daughter of John and Judith Perkins,
of Ipswich. She died perhaps before 1672; and he married, second, Mary
(Smith) Burr, the widow of John Burr, who was her second husband. Her
first husband was Philip CAll. She was a daughter of Richard Smith, of
Shropham, co. Norfolk, England, and died perhaps before her husband,
Jan. 12, 1707-8. The date of his death is not known; he was living
Oct. 3 1707.
In 1654 he bought of Jonathan Wade a form of two hundred acres
situated in what is now the south-eastern part of Ipswich, and having
for its southern boundary Castle Neck Creek, part of the present
dividing line between Ipswich and Essex. The other bounds were on lands
of Mr. Symonds, Mr. Saltonstall and the Rev. Nalth'l Rogers. This farm
he occupied more than forty years, and sold it but little changed in
bounds and area to John Wainwright, in 1698.

He was usually styled Farmer Bennet, and besides his homestead he
held considerable land on Hog Island, Castle Neck and Plum Island.
Although he made many conveyances of land, from 1672 to 1698, the name
of his wife Lydia appears on none of his deeds; the first deed signed
by his second wife is dated May 14, 1680. His name is found in the
list of the commoners of Ipswich in 1664; in 1666 he was one of the
signers of the Ipswich petition to the general court, disapproving the
action of the Massachusetts authorities in opposing the king's
commissioner. In 1672, his brother William Bennet, a vintner of
Bishopsgate, London, died, and left him by will one hundred pounds
sterling.
The collection of this legacy, through the officiousness of one of
his neighbors, caused him considerable trouble. Harlakenden Symonds,
who appears to have been seeking an occasion to go to England, offered
to collect this one hundred pounds for the modest commission of fifty
pounds, which offer was of course refused. He then made a second
proposal to collect the amount of the legacy for ten pounds, to which
Bennet replied that if he employed him he would give ten pounds, and if
he didn't he should "be at his liberty what to give him."
On this slight encouragement Symonds went to England and began
negotiations with the executor of Willliam Bennet's will, but although
he brought his highly respectable friends in Essex up to London to
endorse him, he made no progress in the business for lack of proper
authority to give a full discharge on payment of the money. He
therefore wrote to Bennet for a letter of attorney, which he would not
send him unless his father would become bound for him; this the elder
Symonds declined to do. Symonds however remained in England, waiting
for the letter of attorney and keeping up the show of agency for
Bennet, until he learned that the executor had paid the legatee's bill
of exchange in favor of a merchant in Boston. Soon after his return
Symonds brought a suit against Bennet for damages as well as services
in which he was not successful. In his statement, sworn to in court,
he says he was in England "better than fifteene months, and was absent
from New-England and occations of his family above one yeare and nine
months." This was the visit of which Savage tells that he (Symonds)
"was living at Wethersfiedl in England in 1672;" and adds, "nor is it
known that he ever came back"!