Thomas Bentley is known for his only surviving work,
The Monument of Matrones(1582), a multi-volume prayer-book for women. Few details of his life were known until 2000 when he was identified as Thomas Bentley (1543(?)-1585): a prosperous Londoner,
quondamstudent of Gray's Inn and churchwarden of St Andrew Holborn (Atkinson and Atkinson 2000).
Thomas was the son of Richard and Alice Bentley. His father had a connection with Gray's Inn before his son attended the then fashionable legal society, as he was the owner of ‘Bentley's Rents', which served as lodgings for some of the Inn's students. Thomas's wife, Susan (d. 1581), was one of two orphan daughters of a prominent member of the Mercer's guild and former Sheriff of London, John Maynard. The combination of Thomas's inheritance and
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Citation: Flood, John. "Thomas Bentley". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 January 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=11965, accessed 24 November 2024.]