old, who, after fifteen years' captivity, was rescued by an English ship, and spent the rest of his life as porter in a London warehouse. We may suppose that Benbow's constitution was broken by the hardships of his savage life; he seems to have lived for a few years at Deptford, in very humble circumstances, and died 17 Nov. 1708.
He had written some account of Madagascar which remained in manuscript, and was accidentally burnt in 1714. It had, however, been seen by several, and the hazy recollections of it, together with Drury's story, were worked up, not improbably by Defoe, and published under Drury's name with the title of 'Madagascar, or Journal during Fifteen Years' Captivity on that Island' (1729).
[Campbell's Lives of the Admirals, iii. 349; Gent. Mag. (1769), xxxix. 172.]
BENDINGS, WILLIAM (fl. 1180), judge, was, according to Giraldus Cambrensis,
sent to Ireland by Henry II in 1176 as one of
four envoys, of whom two were to remain with
the viceroy, Richard FitzGilbert, earl of Striguil, and two were to return, bringing with
them Reimund Fitzgerald, whose nulitary exploits had aroused the king's jealousy. Reimund did not at once comply with the royal
mandate, being compelled by the threatening
attitude of Donnell to march to the relief of
Limerick, a town which he had only lately
taken. It is probable, however, that on the
evacuation of Limerick, which took place the
same year, soon after the death of the Earl of
Striguil, Reimund returned to England, as he
is not again heard of in Ireland until 1182, and
that Bendings was one of those who accompanied him. In 1179, on the resignation of
the chief justice, Richard deLucy, a redistribution of the circuits was carried into effect.
In place of the six circuits then existing the
country was divided into four, to each of
which, except the northern circuit, five judges
were assigned, three or four of the number
being laymen. To the northern circuit six
judges were assigned, of whom Bendings
was one, having for one of his colleagues the
celebrated Ranulf Glanvill, who was made
chief justice the following year. In 1183-4
we find him acting as sheriff of Dorset and
Somerset, the two counties being united
under his single jurisdiction. There seems
to be no reason to suppose, with Foss, that
the expression, 'sex justitiæ in curia regis
constituti ad audiendum clamores populi,'
applied to the six judges of the northern circuit, imports any jurisdiction peculiar to
them. The date of Bending's death is uncertain; but that he was living in 1189-90
is proved by the fact that he is entered
the pipe roll of that year as rendering certain accounts to the exchequer.
[Giraldus Cambrensis, Expng. Hibern. ii. 11, 20; Dugdale's Chron. Ser. 3; Madox's Exc. i. 94, 138, 285; Hoveden, ed. Stubbs, ii. 19 Pipe Roll 1, Ric. I (Hunter), 147 ; Foss's Judg. of England.]
BENDISH, BRIDGET (1650–1726), Oliver Cromwell's granddaughter, was daughter of General Henry Ireton, by his wife
Bridget, Cromwell's eldest daughter. She
was born about 1650. As a child she was
a favourite with her grandfather. About
1670 she married Thomas Bendish, esq., a
leading member of the independent or congregational church of Yarmouth, and a distant relative of Sir Thomaa Bendish, an Essex baronet, who was for many years English ambassador at the Porte. Soon after the
marriage Bridget settled at South Town, near
Yarmouth, where her husband owned farm
and salt-works. She closely resembled her
grandfather in personal appearance and (
the opinion of many) in character, and she
gained an extraordinary reputation on that
account. According to the sketch of her
penned in her lifetime by Samuel Say, a dissenting minister of Ipswich, she was a rigid
Calvimst of uncertain temper, with a strength
of will and physical courage rarely paralleled.
She laboured incessantly in her own household, on her husband's farm and at his salt
works, yet was always noted for dignity
mien and the charm of her conversation
She was an ardent champion of her grandfather's reputation. On one occasion she
was travelling to London in a public
coach when a fellow-passenger in conversation with a companion spoke lightly of
the Protector. Bridget not only inveighed
against the offender for the rest of the journey, but on alighting in London snatched
another passenger's sword from its sheath
and challenged the slanderer to fight her
there and then. She always took a lively
interest in politics, and is said to have compromised herself in many ways in the Rye
House plot (1683). She contrived the escape
of a near relative who was in prison on suspicion of complicity. In 1688-9 she secretly
distributed papers recommending the recognition of William III. In 1694 Archbishop
Tillotson introduced her to Queen Mary, and
a pension was promised her, but it was never
granted owing to the death of both her
patrons immediately after the interview.
On 27 April 1707 her husband died. Mrs.
Bendish was always careless about money
matters, and although she received a large
