Joseph Bentham

Joseph Bentham (1593/94 – 1671) was a Church of England minister. His early sermons, many of which were written down and published, disclose a Puritan theology and thoroughgoing Calvinism, but he became increasingly associated with the Royalist cause as Civil War approached. He left little trace during the Commonwealth years. Following the Restoration of the king he was able to return to the ecclesiastical living in Northamptonshire from which he had been excluded by parliament in 1643. His final book, "A Disswasive from Error", appeared in 1669.

Life From his age stated at death it is inferred that Joseph Bentham was born in 1593 or 1594. Available sources are otherwise silent on his early years, but it is known that he graduated from Pembroke College, Cambridge with a BA degree in 1615, taking his MA degree in 1618. in the nearby market town. Bentham was encouraged by fellow clergymen Robert Bolton and Nicholas Estwick to publish some of his "wise and witty" sermons, and during the 1630s two volumes appeared, entitled "The Societie of the Saints" (1630) and "The Christian Conflict" (1635). While less than enthusiastic about aspects of the religious orthodoxy increasingly propounded by government, Bentham's theology was nevertheless non-confrontational in respect of the state: he was, in the words of one source, keen "to prevent the godly from molestation by the courts". Joseph Bentham implicitly chose the same side as his patron. During the early 1640s Bentham compiled a biography of Montagu, described by one authority as "obsequious", but which remained unpublished. Reflecting the uncompromising progress of the civil war under way, Bentham's patron, Edward Montagu, had been arrested by parliamentary forces the previous year, in August 1642, and would die while still in detention in 1644,

The king returned to London in May 1660, and on 29 September 1660 Joseph Bentham was restored to his clerical incumbency at Broughton, which is where he would spend the rest of his life. During the 1660s he published two more books, entitled "The Right of Kings by Scripture" (1661) and "A Disswasive from Error" (1669). He died on 16 April 1671 and, three days later, was buried under the chancel of his church.