P_10433_3096 – Robert Bent
MP and mortgagee of slave-property, a major Liverpool slave-trader with three later voyages from London. Robert Bent, London appears as a member of the Liverpool arm of the Company of Merchants Trading to Africa 1807.
Title: /
First name: Robert
Middle name: /
Last name: Bent
Aliases: /
Primary cohort: London
Sex: Male
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Relations
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Political Offices Held
Parliament
MP for Aylesbury 1802-1804
Bankruptcies
Geographic experiences
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Internal migrant: Don't know
Foreign born: Don't know
Supplier to slave trade voyages: Don't know
Creditor to slave trade voyages: Don't know
Philanthropy: Don't know
Plantation owner: Yes
Mortgagee of the slave-owner Alexander Donaldson in 1803
Sources: http://www.histparl.ac.uk/volume/1790-1820/member/bent-robert-1745-1832. The entry downplays his connections to slavery and the slave-trade: after saying he 'had shares in at least 8 ships based at Liverpool between 1786 and 1794', it went on to say: 'The historian of Aylesbury, writing in 1885, described him as a West India merchant, while a supporter of his rival at the Aylesbury election expressed a hope that ‘the disgraceful nature of his merchandise will be serviceable to us in obtaining the popular cry against him’. These allusions and Bent’s connexions with Liverpool suggest participation in the slave trade, but in the debates of May 1804 on the Aylesbury election bill neither Robert Hurst, who claimed to know Bent, nor the hostile George Rose, who described him as ‘a merchant of irreproachable character and the highest respectability’, mentioned such involvement.' Donnan, Vol. II p. 655.
Other Individuals
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Organisations
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Crossings (3)
83156 - Port au Prince (1803 - 1804)
Role: Owner
83155 - Port au Prince (1802 - 1802)
Role: Owner
82066 - John and James (1803 - 1803)
Role: Owner
Birth
Date: 1745
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Death
Date: 1832
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Burial
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Residencies
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Schools
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Universities
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Inns of Court
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Military training
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Imperial positions
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Apprenticeships
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Livery company affiliations
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Other business activities
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Was slave trading profitable: Don't know
Will
Value of Total Personalty: /
Value of Known Legacies (where material to total estate): /
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Legacies
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