William Bentley

Birth:  29 AUG 1640  Ampthill, Bedford, England

Christening: 13 SEP 1640  Parrish Church of St. Andrew, Ampthill, Bedfordshire, England

Immigration:  1671
Details: On the ship "Arabella" from Gravesend, England, Richard Sprague, master, which sailed 27 MAY 1671 and landed in Narragansett, Rhode Island.

Birth of Son: ABT 1676
Name:  Robert Bentley

Occupation: Currier, which is a craftsman who treated animal skins with oil or grease

Birth of Son: 08 JUL 1677
Name:  William Bentley

Birth of Son: 26 MAY 1679
Name:  James Bentley

Note:  As early as 1679 we know that there was a William Bentley who resided in Kings Town, Rhode Island, for history shows that he with 41 others of Narragansett, sent a petition to the King praying that "he would put an end to these differences about the government thereof, which hath been so fatal to the prosperity of the place; animosities still arising in the people's minds, as they stand affected to this or that government."

Birth of Son: 27 MAR 1690
Name:  Benjamin Bentley

Birth of Son: 19 JUL 1685
Name:  Thomas Bentley

Birth of Daughter: 1686
Name: Jane Bentley

Taxes: 06 SEP 1687
Details:  He was taxed 48. 6 1/2d

Note: In 1705 he had liberty granted by the town to set up a house, convenient for carrying on of his currying trade.

Land Rec:  20 JAN 1712
Details: He deeded to his son James 128 acres.

Land Rec: 01 NOV 1715
Details:  He deeded to his son Thomas 11 acres recently bought of widow Weathers and her son.

Death: 09 JUL 1720  Kingstown, Washington Co, Rhode Island
Note:  His wife Sarah and son Benjamin were appointed executors under his will. There were
bequests to his eldest son William, and also to sons James, and Thomas, and Benjamin, and to his daughter Jane Whitmore.

parents are John Bentley and Mary Betts


So far as known all the Bentleys in America, who date back their ancestry to a period prior to the Revolutionary War, are descendents of William Bentley, Sr., of Rhode Island. Possibly he may have had brothers, but we have no certain record of them. However there are some traditions that are worthy of consideration, in which it is claimed that there were two or three brothers.

John D. Bentley, of Corry, Pa., writes: "My father and a son now living in Boston, both of whom were at some expense and travel in tracing the name back, claimed that there were three Bentleys, who came from England, one settling in Rhode Island, one in Berlin, Rensselaer County, New York, and one was an officer in command of an English regiment, which was quartered in eastern New York and who returned to England.
 

Sarah Eldred

Birth: 10 OCT 1650  Yarmouth, Barnstable Co, Massachusetts

Death: 28 DEC 1731

parents are unknown

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