The Bentleys

Caleb Bentley, born 1702, chr St Olave Southwark. Parents Richard Bentley and Elizabeth.

Joshua Bentley, chr 1730, St George in the East. Parents Caleb Bentley, currier, and Mary. This may have been the Joshua Bentley who was convicted at the Old Bailey in 1748 for stealing at Wapping, and branded on the hand. He married Grace Jamson in St George in the East in 1753. Lighterman. Possibly died 1793.

Joshua Bentley, chr 1754 St George in the East, son of Joshua Bentley and Grace. It is likely that this Joshua was impressed into the Royal Navy for the voyage of the First Fleet to Australia in 1788. He was a seaman on the "Lady Penrhyn" and had a child, Joshua, with a convict woman probably named Mary Morton. From Sydney, the ship sailed on to China to pick up a cargo of tea for the East India Company. When it returned to London, Joshua completed his apprenticeship as a waterman. He married Mary Pelly 10 November 1794 at St Dunstan, Stepney, London. Children: Joshua Robert Bentley, Mary Elizabeth Bentley, Elizabeth Bentley, Sophia Bentley, George William Bentley and Sophia Grace Bentley. He was a lighterman, waterman and pilot. He died probably in 1823.

George William Bentley chr. 9 November 1806 at St George in the East, Stepney, London.
Married Eleanor (Ellen) Cook (b. Northumberland abt. 1810) 11 October 1835, St Olave, Hart St, London.
Children: Richard, Henry, Elizabeth, and Thomas Hood Bentley (b. 1845, Wapping, London)
Died 24th September 1847, at his home at 5 Redmead Lane, Wapping, St George in the East, London, of "disease of brain".

Elizabeth Bentley married William Cotter, a carman, born in Ireland. They lived in London and raised a large family.

Thomas Hood Bentley m. Camilla Denham (b. September 1843, Langport, Somerset, England) in Hong Kong in 1880.
Camilla Denham's parents were William Denham, b. 1816, Langport, d. 1885, Langport, High Bailiff of the County Court and Town Clerk; and Edna Grace Denham, nee Cooke, b. 1816, Bradford, Somerset, England, d. 1886, Axbridge, Somerset, England.
Her brother was Digby Denham, later a conservative Premier of Queensland, Australia.
Children Harry Hood Bentley (b. 1881 in Hong Kong) and Elsie Madeline Bentley, who married George Sautelle and lived in Sydney.
Died 5th August 1905 at his home in Kurraba Road, Neutral Bay,Sydney, NSW, Australia, of heart failure.

Harry Hood Bentley m. Ethel Annie Hall in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia on 7 January 1911.
Children: Minnie Doris Hall Bentley (23 November 1911 to 20 March 1969); Edna Margaret Bentley; Hazel Marion Bentley; and Thomas Hall Bentley.

Minnie Doris Hall Bentley m. Jephson Beauchamp Cameron in Brisbane on 15 April 1944.
Children: Marie, Peter and John Cameron.