Note 2 — ADMIRAL BENBOW AND HIS TREACHEROUS CAPTAINS.

In Owen and Blakeway’s History of Shrewsbury, the ancient descent and parentage of the admiral, as above given, are, on very good argument, altogether denied. They (and what T. Phillips says in his History of Shrewsbury bears them out) state the admiral to have been the son of William Benbow, of Cotton Hill, tanner and burgess of Shrewsbury, and to have had no uncle, Colonel Thomas Benbow, and only an uncle, Captain John Benbow, who was actually (and no doubt pursuant to the sentence recorded in the State Trials) shot in the Bowling Green of Shrewsbury on the 15th of October, 1651, and was buried the following day in St. Chad’s churchyard in that town; and a stone erected over him, which was renewed in 1740, and which gave his name and the date of his interment. St. Chad’s register has further this entry: “1651, October 16; John Benbowe, captain, who was shott at the Castle. B.” All this being so, what becomes of the story of the Colonel Benbow of the Tower? It may be true, but must refer to some other member of the family.