Parliamentary army. Because of Thomas
Bennett's position on the losing side of the Civil War his family lost most of
their lands and had to start over again. The Bennetts succeeded in
achieving recognition for their hard work and management skills by overseeing
lands for Lord Arundell and were eventually rewarded with gifts of property.
They managed to hang on to the Pyt House estate and this
property was still in the family and owned by Mr. Fayne Bennett-Stanford in the 1930s. Now is it a highly successful farm that produces organic meats and vegetables.
(We are researching more about
the Pyt House and will update this website as the information
is confirmed.) On the left side of this page is the Bennett "Coat of
Arms" or shield. Families were recorded in the "College of
Arms". The motto of this branch of the Bennett family was
"Mihi Consulit Deus" which means "God Careth For Me".Around the time that Edward and his family decided to sail for America there were many other families that were making that long two month trip to the new world. They were hoping to find religious freedom. What prompted the original Pilgrims departure from England was the religious persecution that they suffered for worshipping separate from the Church of England. They were arrested and put in jail for practising their own religious beliefs which included accepting Jesus as their lord and saviour and possessing their own Bible which is against the law in England at that time. The Pilgrims settled in Holland to plan their escape to America where they did not have to abide by any country's laws and could have their own church. The Pilgrims did not have all the money they needed for this expedition even after selling everything they owned so they turned to private investors. So in 1620 when the first Pilgrims sailed across the Atlantic in the Mayflower this was not just a search for a better life and new less restrictive religious practises, this was an expidition that was partly paid for by a group of investors that hoped to get rich by having the Pilgrims farm the new land and send the harvest back to England. For these men this was considered a business venture. These bussinessmen set down rules that the Pilgrims had to abide by for colonizing the land. One of which is that they had to farm the land communally and share equally in the harvest, even the families that didn't do any work. The first year the Colonists nearly starved to death. The second year they faired better. The third year they gave up on the communial farming plan and were granted a certain amount of land per family and that family was responsible for growing their own food. This year they had a much better harvest and the colony thrived. Finally the expedition was turning out to be a success!
When the news spread throughout England that there was good farmland and plenty of it, families lined up to be the next ones to sail across the ocean and be granted land to farm. Not only families but rich investors lined up to reap the profits from the land. In 1622 New Weymouth was founded by some of the same investors that funded the Mayflower expedition. They had a plan for the settling and farming of the New Weymouth area. The chief investor in this venture was Thomas Weston of London, England. In 1635 several ships sailed to the Massechussets Bay Colony of New Weymouth. It was in this year that the town Weymouth was estabalished. In 1636 several ships sailed from Weymouth, England one of which was named the "James" and Edward Bennett and his family were on it.
Edward Bennett sailed from Weymouth on the south-east coast of England with his wife Elizabeth Edington and their four children: Samuel, John, Priscilla and Elizabeth. Edward Bennett and family landed on the coast of what is now Rhode Island. By 1635, Weymouth was being flooded by the large numbers of settlers coming to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The new colony of Weymouth was under pressure from the Purists in Boston and the Separatists of Plymouth to conform to their religious beliefs. Rev. Samuel Newman who had an Episcopal education and ancestry, may have seized the opportunity to get into a less restrictive environment by moving to Seekonk (renamed Rehoboth), which was initially settled by Rev. Blackstone, who also fled the Bay Colony religious persecution in Boston.
In the Bay Colony prayer books were not tolerated, but in Massachusetts freedom of choice was universal. Around 1640, Edward moved his family to Rehoboth, Massachusetts with Rev. Samuel Newman and his followers to pursue religious freedom. There Edward and Elizabeth had four more children - Edward Jr., Mary, Richard and Susanna. Edward was one of the town founders and was buried in The Proprietor's Cemetery when he passed away in 1645. We traveled to Rehoboth in the summer of 2006 and found what we believe to be the Proprietor's Cemetery located off the old main street which is now Bay State Road, leading through town. It is a small cemetery right down the hill from the new Rehoboth Cemetery. We found a Bennett headstone with other Bennett plots surrounding it. (Click on the small picture to open the actual picture). It was quite exciting to see evidence of the Bennett family in Rehoboth, Massachusetts.
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