THE BENT FAMILY IN AMERICA. BEING MAINLY A GENEALOGY OF THE JDescen~ants of John :f13ent WHO SETTLED IN SUDBURY, MASS., IN 1638, '\IVITII NOTES UPON TUE FAI\HLY IN ENGLAND AND ELSEWHERE. BY ALLEN H. BENT, .Memb,,. of l!u New En;rland Historic Genealogical Socidy. We set to-dny n votive stone, That. l'\cmnry 111.iy their <l<'<'<i redeem, When like our sires our sons arc ,Jone. -Emerson. BOSTON: PRINTED BY DAVID CLAPP & SON. 1900. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION - ORIGIN OF TUE NA111E, ETC. 7 ENor,1sn ANTEc1m~:NTS 0-"' AMERICAN IlENTS 9 Tim FAMILY IN A.11rnmcA • 11 BENT's Fort·r, COLORADO 127 BrrnT CouNTY, CoLORAl)O • 128 UNCLASSIFIED l\IJmBims OF THE FAMILY 250 BENTS IN A~rnmCA NOT DESCENDED FROM JonN BENT OF SunuuRY, 1638 253 l\fE.IIIORIALS QUAINT AND OLDEN: 1VIJ,L 01'' JOIIN BENT OF ENGLAND, 1588 255 Wu,L 01'' EoITII BENT OF ENGLAND, 1601 255 WrLL OF RonERT BENT OF ENGLAND, 1631 256 WILL OF JonN BENT OF SunBURY, l\IAss., 1672 257 JonN liENT'S INVENTORY, 1672 258 PETITION OF ELIZABETH BENT, 1679 . 260 Gov. CHARLES BENT'S .ArPOINTllIENT AND EPITAPH 261 TnE lhllIILY IN 1VAR : COLONIAL WARS • 262 SOLDIERS 01'' TllE REVOLUTION 263 l\:IU,ITIA OFPICERS SINCE THE REVOLUTION 267 TnE CIVIL WAR 267 T1rn FAIIIILY IN PEACE: COLLEG}; GRADUATES 270 CLERGYJIIEN 270 PHYSICIANS • 271 LA WYERS • 271 POLITICAL STATISTICS 271 NoNOGJINAUIANS 272 MIDDLE NAMES BEFORE 1800 273 PE·nm llEN'r BmGnA111 • 274 TnE NA!l[E IN STORY 277 BENTS IN ENGLAND AND ELSEWHERE 277 CoATs-011-ARllls • 281 ADl>ITIONS AND CORRECTIONS 282 L.\ST Sc1rnE OF ALL-ARousEMENT-nY Miss FRANCES llgN1' l>!LLINGILUI • 286 ILLUSTRATIONS. OLD BENT Ho11rnsTEAD, :MARLBORO', JHAss. frontispiece. (From a photograph by Mr. W. L. Stevens of Marlboro'.) ,JuVGE GEORGE6 BENT 01!' NEBRASKA page 80 U. L.7 BENT 01• GARDNER, l\:!Ass •• 117 Gov. CIIARu:s7 BENT OF NEW l\'1Ex1co 121 LIEUT. SILAS BENT, u. s. N. 128 IloN. CIIARLEs7 B1mT 01,· Iu.1No1s 156 l\IAJOR LUTHER 8.7 BENT OF PENNSYLVANIA 192 HORATIO G. 8 BENT OF ILLINOIS 212 WM. H.8 BENT OF TAUNTON, M.Ass. 247 PREFACE. lfAl\ULY histories arc evolved slowly, notably so the Bent gene­ alogy. The writer first became interested in the subject at the cen­ tennial of his native town in 1885. In the summer of 1888 the 250th anniversary of the arrival of tho first Bent in America and the centenary of the birth of Hyman Bent, were celebrated by the de­ scendants of the latter at the ancestral home in Fitzwilliam, N. H. ]for this gathering a brief account of Hyman Bent's ancestry was prep:ired and afterwards printed. This cncsuraged further research, an<l in the New-England Historical and Genealogical Register for ,July, 1894, appeared a short account of the first four generations of Bents in America. Since then many pleasant hours have been spent in the company of old books, manuscripts and memorials of bygone years, in the endeavor " To summon from the shadowy Past The forms that once have been." The principal books containing information of the family are the History of .Marlboro', Mass., by Rev. Charles Hudson 1862; the old History of Framingham, Mass., by Rev. William Barry 1847; the new History of Framingham, by Rev. Josiah H. Temple 1887; the History of Rutland, Mass., by Deacon Jonas Recd 1836; the History of Milton, Mass., by Rev. Albert K. Teele 1887; the His­ tory of Canton, Mass., by D. T. V. Huntoon 1893; the History of Fitzwilliam, N. H., by Rev. John F. Norton and ,Tool Whittemore 1888; the History of Paris, .Me., by vVillimn B. Lapham 1884; the History of Annapolis County, N. S., by W. A. Calnek and Judge A. vV. Savary 18U7, and of course Savage's Genealogical Diction­ ary of New England, with which all good genealogical students be­ gin their researches. :Many scattered items of interest are to be fu.nd in the History of Sudbury, by Alfred S. Hudson 1889, and norn about Bent's Fort, Col. vVilliam Bent and Gov. Charles 4 BENT FAMILY. Bent is to be found in the History of the Arkansas Valley, Color:ulo, published by O. L. Baskin & Co. of Chicago, in 1881, the History of Colorado, by Frank Hall, The Old Santa Fe Trail, by Colonel Henry Inman 1897, the Story of New Mexico, by Horatio 0. Ladd 1891, and an article by William ,Valdo of Texas, publishc,l by the Missouri Historical Society in 1880. Many other publications have contributed smaller but necessary items to the present volume. One noticeable family trait that may be dwelt upon profitably is the pioneer spirit that has pervaded a large part of the family - the spirit that has been willing to brave the unknown quantity of the wilderness to make a home, the spirit of imlependence that is the foundation of the Republic. John Bent, who came from England in 1638, went immediately to one of the frontier towns; his sons fol­ lowed the advancing frontier, and deeper and deeper still their chil­ dren and childt·en's children penetrated the outlying portions of New England. Until 1760, however, all of the family, so far as known to the writer, remained in Massachusetts. In that year the procla­ mation of Gov. Lawrence of Nova Scotia, opening the lan<l8 of the unfortunate Acadians, who had heen transported from their homes five years previous, seems to have made some impreBsion in N cw England, and several of the Bent family, including DavicP of Sud­ bury, Samuel•, a native of Milton, and probably Elijah" and Peter' of Sudbury, moved to Annapolis County, N. S. Four years later Jesse5 and John• of Milton located in Cumberland County, N. S., and in 1772 ,Joseph" Bent, a Plymouth fisherman, transferred his home to the Yarmouth shore. I do not fin<l any of the family among the Royalists who sailed away in such numbers a few years later. It was not until toward the close of the Revolutionary vVar that Massachusetts men began to settle in the wooded parts of northern New England. In 1780, Samuel• Bent of Sudbury cleared a fat·m in Fitzwilliam, a comparatively new town in southwestern New Hampshire. About the same time his cousin Stephen•, also of Sud­ bury, moved to Dublin, N. H., not far away; and in 1797, Nathan, a brother of the latter, located farther west, in the same couhty, at Winchester. After the war, Vermont was rapidly taken up. Ttw first of this family to remove thither was David• Bent ,Tr., formerly of Rutland (Mass.), who located at :Mt. Holly, in the heart of the PREFACE. 5 Green Mts., in 1786. In after years three of his brothers follo,ved, Thaddeus to Rutland about 1800, Phineas to Underhill, well to the north, in 1803, and Samuel B. to Middlebury in 1818. Another brother, Darius, went to Montreal about 1808. In 1810 Samuel Bent Jr. left his early New Hampshire home and settled in Stock­ bridge, Vt. In 1796 Wm.6 Bent of Mi<ldleboro' located in Paris, Mc.; in 1800 Isaac6 Bent of Quincy moved to New Sharon, Me., and nine years later Davi<l J. 8 Bent of Sud.bury transferred his home to Bangor, Me. Then the children of the early Vermonters began to overflow into northern New York, the first of this family being Pcter6 Bent (in 1801), followed a few years later by three of his brothers. Meanwhile, two longer migrations had taken place, Lemuel6 Bent of Canton, Mass., to Virginia, sometime before 1792, and Lieut.-Col. Silas 5 Bent of Rutland, Mass., to Ohio, with the first settlers, in 1789. In 1806 Silas6 Bent ,Tr. pushed on from Ohio to St. Louis, only three years after the great territory of Louisiana Jrn,cl come into the hands of the United States. This branch seems to have led the family in the westward course of empire. Two of the latter's sons went to Colorado as early as 1826, and three years later Charles had reached what is now New Mexico, and established his home. About 1824 Horatio G.7 Bent went to Georgia, thence to Alabama, and finally to Louisiana. EdwarcF Bent of :Missouri was one of the earliest permanent settlers of California, and so they have spread until members of the family are or have been located in nearly every State in the Union. The list is far from being ex­ hausted, but to prolong it here might be tiresome. Henry Van Dyke, in one of the most charming of out-of-door books, Bl\YS: "Little rivers have small responsibilities. • • • • '\Vhcn you act out to explore one of these minor streams in your canoe you have no intention of epoch-making discoveries, or thrilling and worhl-famous adventures." "It is not require<l of every man and woman," he adds, "to be or to do something great; moat of us must content ourselves with taking small parts in the cho.rus." The Bent family is one of the "little rivers" of history. The his­ torian is the canoeist. ·wm you accompany him in his frail bark? ALLEN H. BENT. BOSTON, l\fass., Feb. moo. EXPLANATION. IN the arrangement of the foJlowing records the plan adopted by the New-England Historical and Genealogical Society has been fol­ lowed in the main. The reader, after looking in the index for a certain name, say J osiah8 Bent of Milton, finds the page to be, in the example chosen, 105.