George Benn

George Benn (1 January 1801 – 8 January 1882) was an Irish historian of Belfast.

Biography Benn was born on 1 January 1801, at Tanderagee, County Armagh. His grandfather, Jonn Benn, came from Cumberland about 1760 as engineer of the Newry canal. His father, also John Benn (1767-1853), was proprietor of a brewery in Belfast; George was his fourth son. He was educated at the Belfast Academy, under Rev. Dr. Bruce; afterwards under Sheridan Knowles, then a teacher of English at Belfast. He entered the collegiate classes of the Belfast Academical Institution in 1816, being one of the original alumni, and took gold medals in logic (1817) and moral philosophy (1818).

In 1819 the faculty prize was offered for the "best account of a parish". Benn was the successful essayist, with the parish of Belfast as his theme. He gained also in 1821 the faculty prize ("The Crusades"), and Dr. Tennant's gold medal ("Sketch of Irish Authors in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries"). The lad's essay of 1819 attracted the attention of James M'Knight, LL.D., then editor of the Belfast News-Letter who offered to print and publish it. It was issued anonymously in an enlarged form in 1823, with three maps and sixteen engravings by J. Thomson. For so young a writer it was a work of uncommon judgment and research, exceedingly well written, with an eye for scenery and a taste for economics as well as for antiquities. It is not superseded by Benn's later and later labours. was made with Mr. James Fisher, of Barrow-in-Furness, to work the mineral beds. A second volume appeared in 1880. This supplementary volume, though the proof-sheets were "corrected by a kind friend", the late John Carlisle, head of the English department in the Royal Academical Institution, bears evidence of the author's affecting statement: "Before I had proceeded very far, my sight entirely failed." Benn died on 8 January 1882.

Edward and George Benn were members of the non-subscribing Presbyterian (Unitarian) body, but wide in their sympathies and broad in their charities beyond the limits of their sect. Edward was the founder, and George the benefactor, of three hospitals in Belfast (the "Eye, Ear, and Throat", the "Samaritan", and the "Skin Diseases"), and their gifts to educational institutions were munificent. Both were unmarried. They left four sisters.

Works The History of the Town of Belfast, with an Accurate Account of its Former and Present State, to which are added a Statistical Survey of the Parish of Belfast and a Description of some remarkable Antiquities in its Neighbourhood, 1823. 8vo. A History of the Town of Belfast from the Earliest Times to the close of the Eighteenth Century, 1877. 8vo, with eight maps and two portraits. A History of the Town of Belfast from 1799 till 1810, together with some Incidental Notices on Local Topics and Biographies of many well-known Families.