James Bentley

From eurekapedia
Revision as of 22:20, 8 July 2013 by Cgervaso (talk | contribs) (See also)
Jump to: navigation, search
Charles A. Doudiet, watercolour on paper, 1854, watercolour, on paper.
Courtesy Art Gallery of Ballarat, purchased by the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery with the assistance of many donors, 1996.

Background

James Bentley was born in 1818 at Surrey, England. He arrived in Australia after being transported to Tasmania where he served a 10 year sentence, before being released in 1851. He migrated to Melbourne immediately after his release, where he worked as a confectioner and gold buyer in Melbourne. Eventually the lure of gold overcame him and he headed for the goldfields.[1]

James Bentley suicided by overdosing on laudanum at Carlton on 10 April 1873, Catherine stating at the inquest ‘My husband has never been of quite right mind since he lost his property at the Ballarat Riots. He has never recovered form the effects of it. Six years later, listed on the marriage certificate as Irene Ormsby Bentley, Catherine married Andrew Haines Mayo from America. They had no children. Catherine Bentley died in 1906, and It is not known what happened to her, although there is a record of an Andrew Mayo dying in 1912 at Warragul.[2]

S.T. Gill, Site of Bentley's Hotel - Eureka Ballaarat, 1855, lithograph, Art Gallery of Ballarat Collection, Purchased, 1977.

Goldfields Involvement, 1854

In Ballarat he was known as the builder and owner of Eureka Hotel, notorious for harbouring unsavoury types. The hotel opened on July 1854. Bentley also had a store with Mackay in 1853 situated near Main Rd, near the Commissioner's Camp.

The Eureka Hotel was burnt down on 17 October 1854, after the death of James Scobie. Bentley was accused of murdering the Scottish miner. [3]

On 18 November 1854, James Bentley, Thomas Farrell and William Hance were convicted of the manslaughter of James Scobie, a Scottish miner who had been found dead near James Bentley’s Eureka Hotel on 7 October 1854. Bentley, and his employees Farrell and Hance, had been tried and acquitted previously for this murder, but due to the outcry on the Ballarat Diggings, the insinuation of police corruption, and the subsequent riot and burning of the Eureka Hotel on 17 October 1854, there had been cause for a new trial. [4]

Post 1854 Experiences

In the News

The states that James Francis Bentley, pickle maker, of Little Bourke St., had attempted to commit suicide on the Steps of Parliament House. The report went on to say that this was the same Bentley who had been involved in the riots at Eureka.[5]


Mr Humffray also presented a Petition from James Francis Bentley, late of the Eureka Hotel, Ballaarat, and of Catherine Bentley, his wife, praying the Assembly to tale into its compassionate consideration the destitute condition to which the petitioners have been rendered through the destruction of property by lawless violence, and would cause inquiry to be made into the whole of the circumstances and determine as to what extent if restitution of property or compensation for its loss they are justly entitled.[6]


See also

Catherine Bentley

Eureka Hotel

Further Reading

Corfield, J.,Wickham, D., & Gervasoni, C. The Eureka Encyclopaedia, Ballarat Heritage Services, 2004.

Site of Bentley's Hotel, Eureka, University of Ballarat Historical Collection

Background

James Bentley was born in 1818 at Surrey, England. He arrived in Australia after being transported to Tasmania where he served a 10 year sentence, before being released in 1851. He migrated to Melbourne immediately after his release, where he worked as a confectioner and gold buyer in Melbourne. Eventually the lure of gold overcame him and he headed for the goldfields.[7]

James Bentley suicided by overdosing on laudanum at Carlton on 10 April 1873, Catherine stating at the inquest ‘My husband has never been of quite right mind since he lost his property at the Ballarat Riots. He has never recovered form the effects of it. Six years later, listed on the marriage certificate as Irene Ormsby Bentley, Catherine married Andrew Haines Mayo from America. They had no children. Catherine Bentley died in 1906, and It is not known what happened to her, although there is a record of an Andrew Mayo dying in 1912 at Warragul.[8]

Goldfields Involvement, 1854

In Ballarat he was known as the builder and owner of Eureka Hotel, notorious for harbouring unsavoury types. The hotel opened on July 1854. Bentley also had a store with Mackay in 1853 situated near Main Rd, near the Commissioner's Camp.

The Eureka Hotel was burnt down on 17 October 1854, after the death of James Scobie. Bentley was accused of murdering the Scottish miner. [9]

On 18 November 1854, James Bentley, Thomas Farrell and William Hance were convicted of the manslaughter of James Scobie, a Scottish miner who had been found dead near James Bentley’s Eureka Hotel on 7 October 1854. Bentley, and his employees Farrell and Hance, had been tried and acquitted previously for this murder, but due to the outcry on the Ballarat Diggings, the insinuation of police corruption, and the subsequent riot and burning of the Eureka Hotel on 17 October 1854, there had been cause for a new trial. [10]

Post 1854 Experiences

In the News

The states that James Francis Bentley, pickle maker, of Little Bourke St., had attempted to commit suicide on the Steps of Parliament House. The report went on to say that this was the same Bentley who had been involved in the riots at Eureka.[11]


Mr Humffray also presented a Petition from James Francis Bentley, late of the Eureka Hotel, Ballaarat, and of Catherine Bentley, his wife, praying the Assembly to tale into its compassionate consideration the destitute condition to which the petitioners have been rendered through the destruction of property by lawless violence, and would cause inquiry to be made into the whole of the circumstances and determine as to what extent if restitution of property or compensation for its loss they are justly entitled.[12]


See also

Catherine Bentley

Compensation Claim for the Burning of Bentley's Eureka Hotel

Eureka Hotel

Further Reading

Corfield, J.,Wickham, D., & Gervasoni, C. The Eureka Encyclopaedia, Ballarat Heritage Services, 2004.


References

  1. Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
  2. Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
  3. Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
  4. Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
  5. Australasian. Feb 1871
  6. Victorian Votes & Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly, 11 December 1856.
  7. Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
  8. Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
  9. Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
  10. Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
  11. Australasian. Feb 1871
  12. Victorian Votes & Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly, 11 December 1856.

External links



References


External links