BENT, John (?1775-1848), of Weaton House, Devon and Oathall, Lindfield, Suss.

On the eve of the general election of 1818, the Irish chief secretary was informed that the proprietor of Sligo borough, Owen Wynne had come to terms with William Holmes and that ‘a Mr Bent, who was lately, and I believe is, a commissioner in Demerara, was the person he intended to recommend’.Add. 40210, f. 334. Bent was duly returned, his address being given as Totnes, where Holmes was returned at the same time. Described elsewhere as ‘a gentleman residing in Devonshire and an estate steward’,The Late Elections (1818), 498. he gave a silent support to government, voting with them on the case of Wyndham Quin, 29 Mar., and against Tierney’s censure motion, 18 May 1819. He also voted against Catholic claims, 3 May. He appeared in one minority list, against the foreign enlistment bill, 3 June.

In 1820 Bent was returned for Totnes, where he had friends in the corporation.Thomas Hampden Bent was a member of the Totnes corporation and Elizabeth Bent (perhaps the Member’s sister) married in 1802 Christopher Farwell, a member of one of the leading corporation families. He invested by 1824 in a Sussex estate and died 6 Oct. 1848, aged 73.Gent. Mag. (1848), ii. 557; PCC 1848, f. 798.