pose of examining and collating manuscripts which might assist his uncle in the projected edition of the Greek New Testament, Bentley consulted manuscripts at Paris, Rome, Naples, and Florence, and took collation of the celebrated Vatican manuscript, his notes on which were afterwards (1784) submitted to Woide for use in his valuable 'Novum Testamentum Graecum e Codice MS. Alexandrino,' &c. fol., 1786. Dr. Thomas Bentley was not, as has been said, the salaried employé of his uncle, and both at Paris and at Rome he devoted most of his time to collating Greek manuscripts of Plutarch, with a view to the publication of an edition of that author, to which his health rendered him unequal. In 1741 Bentley published his handsome edition of the hymns of Callimachus, 'Callimachi Hymni et Eppigrammata; quibiis accesserunt Theognidis Carmina,' &c., 8vo, London, 1741, which was for some time mistakenly ascribed to his uncle. His edition of Cæsar, with notes of his own and of his friend. Dr. Jurin, appeared in 1742. He died suddenly, as Dr. Monk says on the authority of a communication from Mr. Bentley Warren, on 28 May 1743, at Clifton. In the 'Gentleman's Magazine' for 1786, Thomas Bentley has been confounded with Richard Bentley, another nephew of the master, who was rector of Nailston from 1745 to 1786, B.A. 1725, M.A. 1729, D.D. 1750, and a literary executor of his famous uncle.
[Bentley's Introduction to his Q. Horatius Flaccus &c. 8vo. Cambridge. 1713; Dunciad and Remarks in Pope's Works, 1824, iii. 177 and 178; Graduati Cantabrigienses, 1787; Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, iv. 491-2; Nichols's Illustrations, ii. 222; Nichols's Leicester, iv. 809; Monk's Life of Richard Bentley. 1830; Coleridge's Biographia Borealis, 1833, &c.; Gent. Mag. March, May, and December, 1786.]
BENWELL, JOHN HODGES (1764–1785), genre painter, was born in 1764 at Blenheim, where his father was under-steward to the Duke of Marlborough. He was a pupil of an obscure portrait painter named Sanders, but he studied also in the schools of the Royal Academy, and gained a silver medal in 1782. He afterwards for a time taught drawing at Bath, and likewise executed a few small oval drawings in water-colours, which he combined effectively with crayons in a manner peculiar to himself; but his works have suffered much from the ravages of time. He returned to London and exhibited a classical subject at the Royal Academy in 1784, but he died prematurely of consumption in 1786, and was buried in Old St. Pancras churchyard. Several of his works are well known by engravings from them. Among these are two scenes from 'Auld Robin Gray,' the 'Children in the Wood' engraved by W. Sharp, and 'A St. Giles's Beauty' and 'A St. James's Beauty' engraved by Bartolozzi. There is a drawing of 'The Chevalier de Bayard' by him in the South Kensington Museum.
[Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists, 1878.]
BENWELL, MARY (fl. 1761–1800). portrait painter, is not known to have been in any way related to John Hodges Benwell [q. v.] She resided in Warwick Court, London, and exhibited many crayon portraits and miniatures at the Incorporated Society of Artists and the Royal Academy between the years 1761 and 1791. She worked also in oil colours and obtained some reputation in her profession, but she retired from it on her marriage about 1762 with an officer named Code. She was still living at Paddington in 1800. There is a portrait of Queen Charlotte, engraved after her by Richard Houston, another of Miss Brockhurst, by J. Saunders, 'The Studious Fair' (said to be a portrait of Queen Charlotte), by Charles Spooner, and 'Cupid disarmed,' by Charles Knight.
[Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists, 1878.]
BENWELL, WILLIAM (1766–1796), classical scholar, was born in 1765 at Caversham, in Oxfordshire. Having been educated at Reading grammar school under Dr. Richard Valpy, he was sent early in 1783 to Trinity College, Oxford, where his abilities attracted the notice of Thomas Warton. In 1787 he took the degree of B.A. and gained the chancellor's prize for the best English essay, having previously gained the chancellor's medal for Latin verse. In November 1789 he proceeded M.A,, and in the following year was elected fellow of his college. He was presented in 1794 to the living of Hale Magna, in Lincolnshire, which he afterwards resigned for the rectory of Chilton, in Suffolk. In September 1796, ten weeks after his marriage, he died at Milton, in Wiltshire, of a fever contracted while ministering to the comfort of some sick villagers. At the time of his death he was engaged on an edition of Xenophon's 'Memorabilia,' which was published in 1804, He was an occasional contributor to the 'Gentleman's Magazine.' Headley, in the preface to 'Select Beauties of Ancient English Poets,' acknowledges the great assistance he had received from Benwell.
