CELEBRATED TRIALS, CONNECTED WITH THE ARMY AND NAVY. ADMIRAL BENBOW AND HIS TREACHEROUS CAPTAINS. THERE was, before the time of Rodney and Nelson, no name more popular among the sailors of the British navy than that of Admiral Benbow. He had been a sailor himself, and he was, while living, the sailors' idol; and since his death his memory has been held in much reverence by the Jack Tars of that and every succeeding age. The thorough sagacity, honesty, and gallantry he displayed in his many daring ventures had taken, too, with the general public: and "old Benbow," as he was familiarly called (though really never an old man) was looked on as the model of a rough and real British seaman, suited for all weather and all war. He and his deeds have been the subject of many a naval song and story, and his likeness was formerly a common sign for public houses throughout the country. Moreover, to this day, the portraits of the admiral in the town hall of Shrewsbury, and in Greenwich Hospital, and his stalwart visage still to be seen, here and there, in front of some rural inn; and more than all that, the many yarns about him, show that even amid the greater glories of Keppel and Duncan, Rodney and Nelson, old Benbow is not forgotten. Admiral Benbow, though he had to make his own way, came, according to his biographers, from a branch of an ancient and honourable line,-the Benbows of Newport, in the county of Salop; but, singular to say, much obscurity hangs about his immediate parentage. In the Civil War his family of Benbow was Cavalier, and sacrificed life and property in bravely sustaining the royal cause. Colonel Thomas Benbow and Colonel John Benbow, generally understood to be,-the former uncle, and the latter father, of the admiral, were, it is related, both men * Dibdin uses his name freely: here is a specimen from his "Peter Pullhaul's Medley." "When grown a man I soon began To quit each boyish notion; "Ten years I sarved with him, or nigh, And saw the gallant hero die; Yet 'scaped each shot myself, for why? "There's a sweet little cherub that sits up aloft, To keep watch for the life of poor Jack.' of estate, and both officers in the army of Charles I. They were in the military service of the crown prior to the murder of the king, and afterwards fought at Worcester, and were made prisoners at or shortly after that engagement. Much discrepancy occurs as to the exact result of their capture. The usual biographies we find of Admiral Benbow will have it that the elder, Colonel Thomas Benbow, was shot at Shrewsbury on the 15th, 17th, or 19th of October, 1651, and that Colonel John Benbow made his escape. I, however, on referring to the State Trials, find that a Captain John Benbow (he may have never been colonel, or his promotion of colonel might be looked on as illegal in the eyes of the Commonwealth) was tried on the 1st of October, 1651, by a Roundhead court-martial, and had the honour of having, on that occasion, two important fellow prisoners, viz., the brave royalist, Sir Timothy Fetherstonhaugh, and the illustrious Earl of Derby. The earl and Sir Timothy were sentenced to be beheaded,—the one on the 15th of October, 1651, at Bolton; and the other on the 22nd of the same month at Chester; and Captain John Benbow was sentenced to be shot at Shrewsbury on the 15th of the same month. The earl and Fetherstonhaugh, as every one knows, died pursuant to their sentences; but I find no statement, in the State Trials at least, that John Benbow was actually executed. Could it be, if this account is to be sustained, that Colonel Thomas Benbow was shot by sentence of some previous courtmartial, and that John escaped from the judgment to be put in force at Shrewsbury? However, whether from that judgment or not, escape he must have done, if the following story refer to him, which, however, is doubtful. He, it is said, lived during the Commonwealth in concealment, his land being forfeited; and the Restoration found him poor and broken down, and glad to accept a small ordnance post in the Tower of London. Here he was, when his death is reported to have occurred in a very affecting way. It happened that a little before the breaking out of the first Dutch war, King Charles II. came to the Tower to examine the magazines, and his majesty there cast his eye on the colonel, whose appearance had become venerable by a fine head of grey hair. The king, whose memory was as quick as his eye, knew him at first sight, and immediately came up and embraced him. "My old friend, Colonel Benbow," said he, "what do you here?" have," returned the colonel, "a place of fourscore pounds a year, in which I serve your majesty as cheerfully as if it brought me in four thousand.” "Alas!" said the king, "Is that all that could be found for an old friend at Worcester? Colonel Legge, bring this gentleman to me to-morrow, and I will provide for him and his family as it becomes me." But, short as the time. was, the colonel did not live to receive, or so much as to claim, the effects of this gracious promise; for the sense of the king's gratitude and goodness so overcame his spirits, that, sitting down on a bench, he there breathed his last, before the king was well out of the Tower. John Benbow, the future admiral, was fifteen "I * In Owen and Blakeway's History of Shrewsbury, the ancient descent and parentage of the admiral, as above given, are, on very good argument, altogether denied. They (and what T. Phillips says in his His years of age, and was in the merchant service at the time this Colonel Benbow's demise thus happened. One thing is certain, that the king's good-natured interview resulted in no benefit to young Benbow; but he found a better friend in his own industry and ability, which raised him to be owner and commander of the Benbow frigate, one of the most considerable vessels then em tory of Shrewsbury bears them out) state the admiral to have been the son of William Benbow, of Cotton Hill, tanner and burgess of Shrewsbury, and to have had no uncle, Colonel Thomas Benbow, and only an uncle, Captain John Benbow, who was actually (and no doubt pursuant to the sentence recorded in the State Trials) shot in the Bowling Green of Shrewsbury on the 15th of October, 1651, and was buried the following day in St. Chad's churchyard in that town; and a stone erected over him, which was renewed in 1740, and which gave his name and the date of his interment. St. Chad's register has further this entry : "1651, October 16; John Benbowe, captain, who was shott at the Castle. B." All this being so, what becomes of the story of the Colonel Benbow of the Tower? It may be true, but must refer to some other member of the family. * Admiral Benbow was born at Cotton Hill, near Shrewsbury, in 1650. In a bedroom belonging to the house of his birth appear the following lines, written with a diamond on the window : "You go, and round that head, like banners in the air, Shall float full many a loving hope and many a tender prayer.” |