- Songs,' London, 1855, 8vo.
- 'Queen Eleanor's Vengeance and other Poems,' London, 1867, 8vo.
- 'Songs for Sailors,' London, 1872, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1873.
- 'Baby May: Home Poems and Ballads,' London, 1875, 8vo.
- 'Songs of a Song Writer,' London, 1876, 8vo.
- 'Prometheus the Fire-Giver: an attempted Restoration of the lost First Part of the Promethean Trilogy of Æschylus,' London, 1877, 8vo.
- 'The Lark: Songs, Ballads, and Recitations for the People,' London, 1885, 4to.
His 'Songs for Sailors' were set to music in 1878 by John Liptrot Hatton [q. v.] A collective edition of his poems appeared in 1862 in Routledge's 'British Poets.'
His elder brother, Sir John Bennett (1814–1897), sheriff of London and Middlesex, was born on 15 Oct. 1814 at Greenwich. He commenced in 1846 the occupation of a watchmaker, which he carried on at 65 Cheapside until 1889, when he retired. He was a common councillor for the ward of Cheap from 1862 to 1889, and a member of the London school board from 1872 to 1879, and from 1885 to 1889. In 1872 he was sheriff of London and Middlesex, and was knighted on the occasion of the national thanksgiving for the recovery of the prince of Wales. In July 1877 he was elected alderman for the ward of Cheap, but was rejected by the court of aldermen on the ground that he was not a person of fit character. In spite of this decision the ward returned him twice more. On the occasion of his return for the third time, the court of aldermen declared his opponent duly elected despite the far inferior number of votes cast in his favour. Thereupon Bennett withdrew from the struggle. He was a member of several city companies. He died at St. Leonards-on-Sea on 3 July 1897. In 1843 he married Agnes (d. 1889), daughter of John Wilson of Deptford.
[Biograph, new series, 1882, i. 57; Men and Women of the Time, 1895; the Times, 8 March 1895.]
BENNETT, WILLIAM JAMES EARLY (1804–1886), ritualist divine, born on 15 Nov. 1804 at Halifax, Nova Scotia, was the eldest son of William Bennett, major in the royal engineers, then stationed at that place {Somerset and Wilts Journal, 21 Aug. 1886). He was admitted at Westminster school on 16 Sept. 1816, and in 1818 became king's scholar. In 1822-3 he was captain of the school, and in 1823 he was elected to Christ Church, Oxford, matriculating on 9 May 1823. From 1826 to 1828 he held the post of usher at Westminster school, and at the anniversary of 1841 he was a steward.
Bennett graduated B.A. in 1827, M.A. in 1829. Alter taking holy orders he served as assistant minister at St. Peter, Vere Street, Marylebone, in 1831, being also the chaplain to Marylebone workhouse. For some years to 1836 he was curate to Dean Chandler at All Souls, Langham Place, Marylebone, and from 1836 to 1843 he was minister of Portman Chapel. In these positions he acquired considerable reputation as a preacher, mainly in places of worship where low-church practices were observed.
In 1840 Bennett was nominated minister of the new district of St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, and at once set about the erection of the new church. The first stone was laid on 6 Nov. 1840, and the building was consecrated on 30 June 1843, when Bennett became the first incumbent (Davis, Knightsbridge, pp. 92-96). From 1846 to 1850 he was active in promoting the building of the church of St. Barnabas, Pimlico, and it was consecrated on 11 June 1850. Meantime trouble had arisen over the ritualistic practices and ceremonies, many of which would now pass unnoticed, introduced by Bennett into the services. The bishop had before June 1850 complained of some practices at St. Paul's; less than a month afterwards he condemned some novelties at St. Barnabas. There were riots outside St. Paul's, and the police had to guard night and day both the church and the parsonage. The situation was further complicated by the bull creating Roman catholic bishops in England, generally known as the 'Papal aggression,' and by the celebrated letter with its references to Bennett's innovations, which Lord John Russell, then one of his parishioners, addressed on this act of the pope to the bishop of Durham. Bennett was unable to stand before the storm. He tendered to the bishop his resignation of the incumbency on 4 Dec. 1850, and on 25 March 1851 the vacation took legal effect.
Many publications resulted from the incident. Bennett's curate, the Rev. Alexander Chirol, went over to the church of Rome in 1847, and Bennett thereupon brought out 'Apostacy: a Sermon in reference to a late event at St. Paul's, Knightsbridge,' which went through at least eight editions. Chirol issued a reply to this attack, and Bennett retorted (1847, 2 editions). He addressed 'A First Letter to Lord John Russell on the present Persecution of a certain portion of the English Church' (1850, 7 editions), and two years later came out with 'A Second Letter to Lord John Russell' (2 editions). His 'Three Farewell Sermons preached at
