BENTHAM, Robert I, of Pewsey and Collingbourne Sunton, Wilts.

It is likely that the man who sat for Cricklade and Heytesbury in successive Parliaments was a namesake of the Robert Bentham who represented Gloucester in the Commons of 1453, rather than the same individual. There was a minor household man of that name in the mid fifteenth century, and it is worth noting that the tiny Wiltshire boroughs often returned minor royal servants to the Commons. A yeoman of the Crown, this member of the royal establishment became porter of Wallingford castle in 1437, as a reward for his service to Henry V and his queen. Sixteen years later, he and another royal yeoman, John Burgh IV*, received a fresh grant of the same office in survivorship. CPR, 1436-41, pp. 32, 127; 1452-61, p. 107. Bentham may also have sat for the Surrey borough of Gatton, in 1450: see the biog. of Thomas Bentham* below.