An account of Thomas Benson published in 1871

Taken from Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association,
Bideford, August 1871. Vol IV, part II, pages 587-589.

Transcribed by David Carter 2022

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Transcribed text:

The notorious Benson had obtained a lease of the Island [of Lundy] in 1748 from Lord Gower. Thomas Benson was of an old Bideford family residing at Napp, and said to have inherited a large fortune, no less than £40,000. His family and predecessors were considerable merchants, carrying on a great trade with France, Portugal and the Colonies. He was the life and support of Appledore and Bideford entering largely into all sorts of speculations.

In 1749 he aspired to get into Parliament and was elected for Barnstaple on the vacancy which occurred by Mr Rolle being raised to the peerage. In 1747 he had entered into a contract with Government for the exportation of convicts and given the usual bond to the Sheriff to transport them to Virginia or Maryland, which was simple mode of getting rid of convicts in those days; but instead of so doing he merely took them to Lundy, which he had just obtained possession of, and where he employed them in building walls and other various ways. He got into difficulties for smuggling and what was then termed piracy and was exchequered and fined in heavy penalties or duties to Government amounting to £5,000.

A fieri facias was directed to the Sheriff of Devon to levy the penalties under which the officers seized a large quantity of tobacco and other goods secreted in a magazine and caves cut out of the rock at Lundy. He excused himself for the convict affair by claiming that sending them to Lundy was the same as sending them to America. “They were transported from England, no matter where it was, so long as they were out of the Kingdom.”

The fieri facias not realizing sufficient, an extent was issued in 1753 for £7,872 duties and penalties under which the estate of Napp was seized and kept possession of by government during his life.

The most villainous transaction however in which he was implicated was the conspiracy to defraud the Insurance Offices by lading a vessel with a valuable cargo of pewter, linen and salt, which he heavily insured. The vessel sailed for Maryland, but by a secret arrangement between the master and Benson, put back at night and landed the greater part of the cargo at Lundy, where Benson had repaired, concealing it in the caves there, and then the master, Lancey, put to sea, and burnt and scuttled his vessel some leagues to the westward, the crew being taken off by a homeward-bound ship. The roguery was however soon discovered by the confession of one of the crew. Lancey was apprehended with some of his shipmates, seized and condemned, hung at execution Dock and afterwards in chains. Benson escaped to Portugal; he is said, however to have returned to Napp incognito for a time, some years afterwards, when the affair was nearly forgot, but ultimately returned to Portugal, and died there. I quote from a manuscript journal of a visit to Lundy by a friend of Benson’s, some particulars of the Island and of Benson himself at this time.

“In the month of July 1752, I sailed from Appledore on a Monday morning with Sir Thomas Gunstone in a little vessel bound to Wales which dropped us in Lundy road. We came from Mr Benson's house, of Napp, who rented the island of the Lords Cartaret and Gower for £60. We landed about two o'clock. Mr Benson did not accompany us, expecting letters from the Insurance Office for the vessel and cargo which was to have taken us there. The vessel then lay off his quay with convicts bound to Virginia, but he came to us on Wednesday. The Island was at this time in no state of improvement, the houses miserably bad, one on each side the platform, that on the right inhabited by Mr Benson and his friends, the other by servants. The old Fort was occupied by the convicts whom he had sent there sometime before, and occupied in making a wall across the Island. They were locked up every night when they returned from their labour. About a week before we landed seven or eight of them took the long boat and made their escape to Hartland, and were never heard of afterwards. Wild fowl were exceeding plenty and a vast number of rabbits. The island was overgrown with ferns and heath, which made it almost impossible to go to the extreme of the Island. Had it not been for the supply of rabbits and young sea gulls our table would have been but poorly furnished, rats being so plenty that they destroyed every night what was left of our repast by day. Lobsters were tolerably plenty, and some other fish we caught. The deer and goats were very wild and difficult to get at. The path to the house was so narrow and steep that it was scarcely possible for a horse to ascend it. The inhabitants by the assistance of a rope climbed up a rock in which were steps cut out to place their feet, up to a cave or magazine where Mr Benson lodged his goods. There happened to come into the roads one evening near 20 sail of vessels. The colours were hoisted on the fort, and they all as they passed Rat Island returned the compliment except one vessel, which provoked Mr Benson to fire at her with ball, though we used every argument in our power to prevent him. He replied that the Island was his, and every vessel that passed it and did not pay him the same compliment as was paid to the king’s forts he would fire on her. He talked to us about his contract for exportation of convicts to Virginia and often said that sending convicts to Lundy was the same as sending them to America; they were transported from England, it matters not where it was, so long as they were out of the Kingdom”.
 

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