Paul Benfield

Profile & Legacies Summary

1741 - 1810

Previous owner (non-claimant)

Biography

Paul Benfield invested some of his East India wealth into the Bogue estate in Jamaica alongside Alderman Richard Atkinson (q.v.) c. 1780, and also owned the 'Benfield estates' in Berbice, which included at one time Edinburgh, Glasgow, Welgelegen, Herstelling, New Welgelegen, Belmont, Union, Mon Choisi, Zeelught and Edderton. By the time of compensation only Herstelling and Welgelegen appear to have continued in the hands of his daughters Caroline Martha Berkeley and Henrietta Sophia Berkeley and their respective husbands, George Charles Grantley Fitzhardinge Berkeley and Robert Berkeley (each of whom q.v.).

Paul Benfield has an entry in the ODNB as 'financier in India.' The entry is silent on his 'slave-property.'

Sources

Alexander Winter, 'Coffee cultivation in Berbice, 50 years ago', in Timehri: being the journal of the Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society of British Guiana Vol. 1 (1882), pp. 272-3.

ODNB online, P.J. Marshall, 'Benfield, Paul (1741-1810), financier in India.'

Further Information

Spouse

Mary Frances Swinburne

Children

Caroline Martha; Henrietta Sophia; 1 son

Occupation

Banker

Oxford DNB Entry

Visit Oxford Dictionary of National Biography site

Associated Claims (2)

Associated Estates (3)

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