Peninsula In Passage

People

Richard Bennett

The Bennett name is written all over northern Suffolk. Since the earliest 17th century land grants, the story of the Bennetts, a wealthy, influential English merchant family, has figured in the history of Virginia. By the 1630s, the Bennett’s acquired thousands of acres by headright grants along the James and Nansemond Rivers as well as thousands of acres in Maryland. Edward Bennett, Richard Bennett’s uncle, was an auditor of the Virginia Company of London in 1621 when he patented Bennett’s Welcome, a large property in Warraskoyack in what is now Isle of Wight County. By 1628, when Richard Bennett traveled to Virginia to manage Bennett’s Welcome, his two uncles and a younger brother had already perished in the colony. Richard was elected to the House of Burgesses in 1629, appointed commissioner for that district two years later and appointed to the governor’s Council in 1642.

Richard Bennett lived at another of his uncle’s properties, Bennett’s Choice along the Nansemond River, while establishing himself as a successful planter and political leader. In the 1630s he patented over 2000 acres by the headright system between Bennett Point and Parraketo Point on the

Archeology indicates Richard Bennett’s Home at Bennett’s Creek Landing

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