This renowned seaman was born at Cotton Hill in the parish of St. Mary's, Shrewsbury, some time in 1651; but as the principal distinction of his family name was that his progenitors bad served his country in the profession of arms in no very exalted rank, all record of their condition has perished. He was the son of Colonel Benbow, who was a sturdy Royalist during the Civil Wars, and stood by the King's side at Worcester Fight, where be was taken prisoner-and narrowly escaped being put to death. During the Usurpation his family probably lived at Shrewsbury; and at the Restoration he was appointed to some small office in the Tower of London, where, a little before the breaking out of one of his Dutch wars, King Charles II happened to pay a visit of inspection as to the state of the magazines.

There His Majesty saw the good old Colonel, whose hair was blanched with age, and, with that wonderful memory which attaches with such singular uniformity to Royalty, His Majesty recognized him, received him with great cordiality, and condeseendingly inquired after his fortunes. The Colonel told the King that he enjoyed a place in the Tower of some fourscore pounds, in which he endeavoured to serve His Majesty as cheerfully as if it were four thousand. The King answered that it was too small a recompense for one who had stood by him on the field of Worcester; and, turning to his attendants, commanded that he should come to the palace the following day, when he would inquire how he might provide more liberally for him and his family ; but that tomorrow the veteran was destined never to see. His sense of the King's condescension and goodness overcame his long pent-up feelings of loyalty and devotion, and, sitting down on a bench, be quietly breathed his last, even before His Majesty was well out of the Tower.

It does not appear that the family derived any benefit from the good-intentioned monarch's intentions. There is no record of what the Colonel's family consisted of, or what became of them. The subject of our memoir was bred to the sea in the merchant-service, and became, before the end of Charles II's reign, owner' and commander of the "Benbow," - one of the most considerable of the vessels in the Mediterranean trade. He appears to have obtained the reputation of a brave, active, and skilful seaman, and he would have probably acquired a good estate in the mercantile marine, if an accident bad not brought him to a commission in the Royal Navy which led to his future distinction.

In the year 1686 Captain Benbow, trading in the vessel bearing his name, of which he was Master and part owner, was attacked in his passage to Cadiz by a Sallee Rover, against which he defended himself' with the utmost bravery, until the Moors succeeded in boarding his ship. This roused him to a desperate struggle, which ended in his expelling the barbarians from his deck, leaving thirteen men behind them, whose beads the Captain desired to be cut off and thrown into a tub of pork pickle. Arriving at Cadiz, he went on shore and ordered a negro servant to follow him with the Moors' beads in a sack. In answer to the inquiries of the revenue officers, "What have you got there?" the Captain answered, "Salt provisions for my own use ;" but he refused to allow the sack to be opened.

The officers insisting that he must then go before the magistrate, the Captain consented to go before him, and was received with every civility, but, as he refused to open the sack to the demand of the proper officer, the nature of their commission obliged them to demand a sight of the contents of' his sack.

"Very well," said the Captain; "I told you they were salt provisions for my own use. Caesar, throw them down upon the table; and, gentlemen, if you like them, they are very much at your service." Of course the whole court was astonished at the sight, and, demanding the circumstances under which he obtained them, Benbow succinctly and modestly related the adventure; and this account of the Captain's enterprise obtained a pretty general circulation in the city, so that it came to be carried to the ears of Charles II, then King of Spain, who commanded that Captain Benbow should repair to his Court, that he might become acquainted with so gallant an officer.

He was received by the Spanish sovereign in the midst of his Court with the greatest respect, and was afterwards dismissed with a handsome present, and His Most Catholic Majesty wrote a letter to his royal brother of England to congratulate him on liaving such a subject: hence it was that James II, on the receipt of the recommendation, made Benbow's acquaintance, and gave him the command of a ship in the Navy.

After the Revolution, Benbow was placed in charge of the "York," in 1689; and the merchants of the City, who well knew the man and his worth, requested that he might be appointed to the command in the British Channel to protect our trade. In this service he not only succeeded effectually, but by his daring and skill acquired a perfect knowledge of French ports, evinced, on many occasions, the most intrepid courage in these expeditions by accompanying the engineers in the ship's boats during the bombardments, by sharing in all their hardships, and by usefully assisting in these operations: so he became generally recognized as a practical and trustwortby seaman, and in consequence Lord Torrington constituted him Master of the Fleet, in which character he acted in the battle off Beaeby Head.

St. Malo

The vigour and activity he displayed ultimately recommended Benbow to King William for a flag, and, in November, 1693, we find him in command of a squadron of twelve men-of-war, four bomb-vessels, and ten brigantines, off St. Malo. He at once ran in and anchored before Quince Fort, and, after placing his ships in positions best suited to the plan of Captain Philips, the engineer, he opened a concentrated fire upon the fort. The enemy, however, received him with such a return fire that, after five hours' firing, he was constrained to warp the ships to prevent grounding. The harbour of St. Malo, although large, is known to be difficult of access on account of the rocks that surround it, and from the great strength of its defences.

The squadron returned to the attack a day or two later, and succeded in throwing seventy bombs in one day into the town, when a landing was effected, which merely resulted in setting fire to a convent which had been occupied with troops.

At length, on the fifth night, which was exceedingly dark, with a fresh gale of wind and a strong tide, Benbow brought in a novel kind of fire-ship, of about 300 tons' burden, which was intended to have reduced the town to ashes, but she struck upon a rock, and the engineer who was on board being unable to manage her, set fire to her, and quitted her, when she exploded, with an effect that shook the place like an earthquake, broke all the glass for leagues around, and struck off the roofs of 300 houses. A capstan that weighed 200 pounds was transported by the explosion over the walls, and fell upon a house, which it brought to the ground. The consternation and the destruction occasioned would have probably led to the capture of the town if there had been a sufficient number of land forces, but all that really happened was that the fort only was assaulted and destroyed, eighty prisoners captured, and for a time St. Malo, which had been a nest of privateers infesting the English commerce, was crippled if not destroyed.

In the year 1695 Benbow formed one of a more considerable expedition which, under the command of Lord Berkeley and the Dutch Admiral Allemonde, sailed on the 4th July. The entire fleet, consisting of seventy sail, came before the place and cannonaded it with all their guns, while Colonel Richards, the engineer, with Benbow on board the "Charles" galley, led the way to place the bonib-vessels within a mile and a half of the town. By this plan the town was set on fire in several places, the bombard. ment being continued for eleven bours with all the success that could possibly be expected from such an operation (which, it may be said en passant, is one of the most cruel expedients of war, for it does very considerable private injury, and rarely does much effective service). All that can be said for these bombarding and touch-and-go visits to an enemy's shores is this, that it is always better to alarm and burn the French coast than to suffer them to alarm and burn the English ports, which they would probably attempt if they were not frightened for their own.

In 1695-6 the policy appears to have been still pursued of insulting the coast of France; Granville, Havre-de-Grace, Dunkirk, Calais, were all in turn threatened or bombarded, and the entire French shore was kept in a perpetual alarm. In the month of May, Rear-Admiral Benbow sailed with a small squadron in order to block up Du Bart in the harbour of Dunkirk; but that famous adventurer availed himself of a fog to escape him, and although Benbow followed him as well as he could, he contrived to evade him more than once, although he was sometimes within sight of him. Our hero received a wound in the leg off Calais; but shortly afterwards, the Peace of Ryswick put an end to the war, and brought some repose to Benbow.