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Bentley
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Bentley

same month. He represented that constituency until 1820, when he gave place to his brother, Lord George Bentinck [q. v.] He succeeded to the dukedom in March 1854, but did not take the oaths and his seat until 6 June 1857. From 1859 till his death he was deputy-lieutenant for Nottinghamshire. As head of the Portland family, he was the person in whom the power of nominating a trustee to represent the Harley family on the British Museum trust is vested by statute. Throughout life he was an adherent of the tory party, but did not distinguish himself as a debater in either house of parliament. The turf and the management of his large estates chiefly occupied his time. He lived the life of a recluse, unmarried, and seeing little or no society, and it is said that he even refused to allow the workpeople engaged on the improvements which he carried out on his estates to show any sign of respectful recognition on meeting him. By assiduous care he succeeded in bringing the demesne and grounds of Welbeck Abbey to a high degree of perfection, his hothouses and greenhouses being reputed the best in the kingdom. He was a munificent donor to various charities. He died 6 Dec. 1879, and was buried on the 12th following at Kensal Green Cemetery with the utmost simplicity. His younger brother, Henry William, having died without male issue, 31 Dec. 1870, the title devolved upon the late duke's cousin, Lord William John Arthur Charles James Cavendish-Bentinck, the present duke.

[Times, 13 Dec. 1879, p. 5. col. 6; Foster's Peerage; Burke's Peerage; Official Return of Members of Parliament, part ii. pp. 289, 304; Lords' Journals, lxxxix. 63; Stat. 26 Geo. II. c. 22, 8. 7; Sims's Handbook to the Library of the British Museum, vii.]

J. M. R.

BENTLEY, CHARLES (1806–1854), water-colour painter, was a member of the old Water-Colour Society, to which he was elected in 1844. 'His contributions,' Redgrave says, 'were chiefly coast and river scenes, but extended over a wide range, and included the numerous and varied incidents which belong to such subjects.' The British Museum contains one very fine example, a highly decorative drawing, bold, fine in colour and composition, not precisely drawn, however, and careless in matters of detail. The South Kensington Museum has four of his paintings. He died of cholera 4 Sept. 1854.

[Ottley's Supplement to Bryan's Dict.; Art Journal, 1854, p. 314; Athenæum. 9 Sept. 1854, p. 1090; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists of English School]

E. R.


BENTLEY, Sir JOHN (d. 1772), vice-admiral, entered the navy about the year 1720, and was made lieutenant 28 March 1734. In the battle of Toulon, 11 Feb. 1743-4, he was a lieutenant of the Namur, Mathews's flag-ship, and was immediately afterwards promoted to the command of the Sutherland hospital-ship. On 1 Aug. 1744 he was posted into Burford, 70, and a few months later was sent home as a witness on the courts martial which rendered the years 1745-6 notorious. In the spring of 1747, when Anson took command of the Channel fleet, Bentley was chosen to be his flag captain in the Prince George, and was with him in the battle of Cape Finisterre, 3 May. When the fleet returned to England, and Anson hauled down his flag, Bentley was transferred to the Defiance, 60, in which he shared in Hawke's victory in the Bay of Biscay, 14 Oct. 1747. He afterwards, during the peace, successively commanded the Invincible, the Charlotte yacht, and the Barfleur, at Portsmouth, and in 1757 was a member of the court martial on Admiral Byng. In 1758 he was again in command of the Invincible, one of the finest 74-gun ships in the service, and which he had himself helped Anson to capture from the French. She was under orders to proceed to Louisbourg with Admiral Boscawen, when, on 19 Feb., weighing from St. Helen's, her rudder jammed, and she grounded heavily on the Dean Sand. In the evening it came on to blow very hard, and the ship became a complete wreck. Bentley, with his officers, was acquitted of all blame (Minutes of the Court Martial), and shortly afterwards appointed to the Warspite, which through the summer of 1759 was in the Mediterranean with Boscawen, and on 18 Aug. when the French squadron, under De la Clue, was defeated. On the 19th, when the ships that had sought refuge in Lagos Bay were captured or destroyed, it was by Bentley's exertions that the Téméraire, which had been run ashore was brought off and added to the strength of the English navy. In September Bentley was sent to England, was presented to the king, was knighted, and, still in the Warspite was ordered to join Hawke in the blockade of Brest. It was thus his peculiar fortune, after sharing in the defeat of De la Clue, to be present also in the great victory of Quiberon Bay, 20 Nov. 1759. The Warspite continued through 1760 attached to the grand fleet under Hawke, but the victory of 1759 had minimised the action of the navy in European waters, and Bentley's further service afloat was uneventful. In 1761 he was appointed to a commissionership of the