Bennetts of Greenwich

These two documents are probably the saddest end to George Williams Bennett’s recorded life . In 1865 his uncle Sir John Bennett gave him £1,187 for his one fourth share of the Banks estate. This was George’s inheritance from his deceased father George Weedon . And Sir John’s way of ensuring that he had the whole of the freehold estate of the Banks in Mountfield , his ancestral home to impress the City big-wigs . Evan Vaughan the surveyor reckoned it a very generous price . And in today’s money it would be worth thousands. For a very young man fairly newly married, this must have been like the start of a new life . Yet here he is in the workhouse from 1903 to when he walked out in 1918.

This is a précis of the Chancery documents which outline the reasons for the firesale of the Bennett property in Blackheath . And what follows is the pared back detail from all 15 plus pages of Chancery evidence . The nub of the case is that although John Bennett 1786-1829 left a will , he left all his possessions to his wife Elizabeth in trust for his 4 children . So she was tenant for life of all the leasehold and freehold property . This seems to have worked well until the late 1850s . Maybe times were hard in the mid to late 1850s , but George Weedon Bennett was regularly borrowing money . His father’s will seems almost to have anticipated this . “and further to borrow money of security of my freehold and leasehold property to pay any portion to secure the payment of any of debts I may owe at my decease but not to borrow money on the said freehold and leasehold properties for no other purpose than to pay the said debts. ” So wrote John Bennett senr in 1828 .

CONSISTORY COURT OF ROCHESTER WILLS
from Maidstone Centre for Kentish Studies . 1750 – 1850 searched
Bennett , Henry the elder, p 1792 Wateringbury , husbandman 39313DR6/PW62 will

Bennett, Robert, of Ridley, farmer, p 1792, 39303 DR6/ PW62 will

Bennet , William , Gravesend, p 1779, outpensioner of Chelsea “College” 3913 DR6/PW61 admon

Bennett , Thomas, Luddesdon, 1846, June admon

ARCHDEACONRY COURT OF ROCHESTER WILLS and admons from ditto

Bennett, Elizabeth , Kemsing, widow , p 1790 DRa/Pur 9.248 DRa/PW16

Caricature of Sir John Bennett and his watch dated 1871
Reproduced by kind permission of
the Guildhall Library, London, England
Copyright protected 2003

This story is like all family histories, an incomplete one . What has been found so far is an extraordinary and unexpected collection of facts .

There are several references to the Bennetts watch and clockmaking firm being in existence as early as 1765 but unfortunately this headline on the Sir John Bennett notepaper does not say ” of Cheapside ” or of anywhere else . However , the discovery of a list of property leasehold and freehold owned by John Bennett senr, shows that he tenanted a property in Greenwich High St but that he owned freehold the Banks at Mountfield . This page came to light with other papers concerning the court case between Sir John and the widow of George Weedon Bennett and her new husband Mr Jenkins . Had it not been for our Australian cousins knowledge of the Bennett v Jenkins court cases we might never have discovered this list of property .. ( see The Banks Mountfield page )