began the formal impeachment of Sir John Bennet. Besides selling administrations, he was accused of misappropriating money entrusted for 'pious uses,' in particular a legacy of 1,000l. given to the university of Oxford by Sir Thomas Bodley's will. The trial was adjourned until the next session. Sir John, who seems to have proved less guilty than was at first supposed, being discharged on rather more than half the amount of bail originally demanded. This year parliament dissolved in June, and reassembled on 20 Nov., but the trial was never resumed, Sir John being excused attendance on the ground of dangerous illness. In the following year, however (June 1622), the attorney-general instituted proceedings against Sir John in the Star chamber, which resulted, in November of that year, in a sentence similar to that which had been passed the preceding year upon the lord chancellor, viz. a fine of 20,000l., imprisonment during the king's pleasure, and permanent disability from holding office. In the Star chamber the delinquent appears to have practically pleaded guilty, urging only by way of appeal ad misericordiam the existence of his wife, and the multitude of his issue, fifty in all — i.e. ten children and forty grandchildren — upon all of whom, besides 'others,' the execution of the sentence would bring shame and distress. On 16 July 1624 the sentence was remitted, with the exception of the fine of 20,000l. This he apparently found means to pay, as about this time he seems to have been discharged from the Fleet, to which he had been committed. Probably he was already in very infirm health, for he did not survive 1627. In 1625 (13 July) Dr. Hodgson had been appointed to fill his place in the council of the North. He died at his house in Christ Church, London, and was buried in the church of that parish. His wife, Leonora, survived him, and resided till her death at his seat at Uxbridge, subsequently known as the 'treaty house,' from the commissioners on either side having there met to arrange the futile treaty which was concluded between the king and the parliament in 1645. She died in 1638, and was buried in the chapel at Uxbridge.
[Le Neve's Fasti, iii. 199, 490; Willis's Not. Parl. iii. 139, 148, 169, 172, 181; Drake's Hist. York, 357. 369, 370, 456, 457, 511; Stow's Annals, 820; Townshend's Hist. Coll. 228, 232; Nichols's Progresses (James I), i. 206; Rymer, xvi. 386–94, xvii. 202, 258; Wood's Hist. Ant. Oxford, iii. 788–90. 934, iv. 616-20, Appendix. 110. 189; Wood's Fasti, i. 249; Parl. Hist. i. 1172; Lodge's Illustrations, iii. 70, 71; Winwood's Mem. iii. 429; Court and Times of James I, i. 464, ii. 5, 350; Motley's Life of Barneveld, ii. 76; State Papers, Dom. 1598–1601, 1611–1618, 1619–1623, 1623–1625; Journals of House of Commons, i. 580–91; Journals of House of Lords, iii. 87–197; Lysons's Environs of London, vi. 133, 181, 182; Collins's Peerage (Brydges), Tankerville Title; State Trials, ii. 1146; Yonge's Diary, 37; Petyt's Misc. Parl. 92, 93; Cat. MSS. Harl. ii. 134.]
BENNET, JOHN (d. 1686), controversial writer, was born in the parish of St. Margaret, Westminster, and was educated at Westminster School. In 1676 he was elected student of Christ Church, Oxford. He took the degree of B.A. in June 1680, and that of M.A. in April 1683. Before graduating as M.A. he published a pamphlet entitled 'Constantius the Apostate. Being a short Account of his Life, and the Sense of the Primitive Christians about Succession. Wherein is shown the Unlawfulness of excluding the next Heir on account of Religion, and the Necessity of passive Obedience, as well to the unlawful Oppressor as legal Persecutor' (London, 1683). This was one of the many replies called forth by the celebrated work of Samuel Johnson (chaplain to Lord William Russell), entitled 'Julian the Apostate.' In Johnson's book the behaviour of the christians towards Julian was used as an argument in favour of the exclusion of the Duke of York (afterwards James II) from the succession on the ground of popery. Bennet in his reply urges that the Arian Constantius afforded a truer parallel than Julian to the case of a popish sovereign of England, and parodying Johnson's method, endeavours to show that Constantius's orthodox subjects recognised the duty of 'passive obedience' to a heretic emperor. The arguments on both sides are now equally obsolete, but it is easy to see that Bennet was no match for his antagonist, either in knowledge of history or in controversial ability. Johnson, however, thought his reasoning worthy of a special refutation. Bennet afterwards studied medicine. He died on 6 Oct. 1686, and was buried in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iv. 201; Fasti Oxon. ii. 372, 386.]
BENNET, JOSEPH (1629–1707), nonconformist divine, the son of Joseph Bennet, rector of Warbleton, in Sussex, was born in 1629. He was educated at Tunbridge grammar school under Mr. Home, and on 30 June 1645 was admitted sizar for the master at St. John's College, Cambridge, as a member of which he proceeded B.A. in 1649–50. Having had the misfortune to lose his father at an early age, he was brought up by an
