When William Spencer Bentley was born on 17 January 1768, in Exeter, Washington, Rhode Island, United States, his father, Caleb Bentley, was 28 and his mother, Leah Spencer, was 25. He married Hannah GARDINER about 1793. He died on 28 April 1834, at the age of 66.
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Thomas Jefferson's American Declaration of Independence endorsed by Congress. Colonies declare independence.
Rhode Island declares independence from Great Britain on May 4, 1776, making it the first colony to do so officially.
Caused by war veteran Daniel Shays, Shays' Rebellion was to protest economic and civil rights injustices that he and other farmers were seeing after the Revolutionary War. Because of the Rebellion it opened the eyes of the governing officials that the Articles of Confederation needed a reform. The Rebellion served as a guardrail when helping reform the United States Constitution.
English: habitational name from any of various places, the chief of which are in Derbyshire, Essex, Hampshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and East and South Yorkshire. The placename is from Old English beonet ‘bent grass’ + lēah ‘woodland clearing’.
In some cases also an Americanized form of South German Bentele or of its Swiss German or South German cognates Bandle and Bandli.
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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