MYTHS AND LIES CONCERNING ROBERT BENNETT,
A TANNER OF WIVELISCOMBE,
SOMERSET, ENGLAND
There are 27 trees at Ancestry.com for Robert Bennett, died 1603, of Wiveliscombe, Somerset, England. I've compiled the "facts" from these trees and present them here with comments. All that follows was clearly made up by someone, somewhere, at some point in time. (And people get mad at me for suggesting that any part of this wrong?) In 1938, John Bennett Boddie suggested that Robert was the son of a John Bennett and his wife Margaret. He refers to a record in which John was described as a tanner, the profession Robert followed. However, he doesn't cite the record and, to date, I've not found it. The only verification found is the burial record for Margaret Bennett in 1564 describe as wife of John Bennett. Whether they were of sufficient age is not proven on way are another. If John and Margaret were, indeed, the couple married in Aller in 1562, they could not have been Robert's parents.
| NAME |
Robert Bennett, Lord Robert I Herbert,Earl of Tankerville Benet, Sir Thomas Samuel Bennett | Only one of these makes sense, of course. Beyond that, it should first be noted that people didn't have middle names in those days. More specifically, the Earldom of Tankerville had three creations. It belonged to the Gray family from 1418 to 1453. It was revived for Baron (William) Grey of Werke in 1695 (already well beyond the life of Robert Bennett) and became extinct at his death in 1701. Grey's daughter, Lady Mary Grey, married Charles Bennet, 2nd Baron Ossulston, and the Earldom was created a third time for him in 1716. |
| BIRTH | 1533, 1535, 1538, 1540 in Massachusetts(!), 1550 | Birth records weren't kept in England before 1538. It's impossible to verify any of this. |
| MOTHER | Anstie Tomson Spicer, Elizabeth Bennett, Lady Margaret Fellow Lamberd, Elizabeth Edney, Mary Bennett, Ann Jenetta Molines, Margery Lamberd, Lady Francis Elizabeth Woodcote, Elizabeth Shelley | If we were to believe everything we read, this was a very busy man and with lots of children in multiple counties. Most commonly, Anstie Tomson Spicer was his wife. Did he really marry his daughter-in-law through son Thomas? Did her really marry a woman named Anstie Tomson Spicer? No. She married a Thomas Bennett of neighboring Milverton. Proof of her marriage, death, and children are found at the Somerset archives. (Does anyone look at source material anymore?) All but one of the remaining makes any sense. A Margaret, wife of John Bennett, died in Wiveliscombe in 1564. But any theory that they were Robert's parents is just that. There is zero proof. The rest of the "mothers" are the result of conflating several different men, all with their own birth, marriage, and death dates. |
| FATHER | John Woodley (died 121 years after son's death); Captain Robert Bennett (born a year after the son); Captain Thomas I Bennett of Chillingham Castle (born several decades after the son); John Bennett; Sir John Bennett 1st Baron Ossulston; Robert Bennett; Sir John Pytt Bennett, Earl of Tankerville, 1st Baron Bennett; John Gill Bennett; Sir John Bennett of Cheshire; Sir John Pytt Cheshire Bennett, Earl of Tankerville; Sir Roger Copley; Sir Roger of Roughway Copley; | Really? Read the above. The only serious contender is John, the wife of Margaret, but there's no smoking gun. There is no record describing their relationship and, so far as we know, the couple might not have been old enough to have had a child in the 1630s or 1640s. In any event, this probably started with John Bennett Boddie's speculation in 1938 that they were Robert's parents. Boddie is not at fault here. He clearly stated that he was guessing. |
| SPOUSE | Mary Thornston, Alice Pierce, Agnes Beard, Lady Mary Margery Taylor, Lady Emma Elizabeth Edney Countess of Edney, Anne Weeks, Ann Molines, Ann Molines, Anne Beresford, Anstie Tomson Spicer | I'd never heard of the Thornston, Taylor, and Beresford candidates. Alice Pierce married a Thomas Bennett in Virginia about 20 years after Robert's death. Agnes Beard married yet another Thomas in Wiveliscombe about that same time. As noted, Anstice Tomson Spicer married yet another Thomas in Milverton in 1595. Yes, there is a 1558 marriage between Robert and Elizabeth Edney, but she was not "a Lady" and certainly not the "Countess of Edney," a title that never existed. |
~~~
See the following for more information:
The Problem with the Wiveliscombe (Somersetshire) Bennetts