Benton is the most obscure man to represent Scarborough in Henry VI’s reign. His obscurity encouraged Wedgwood erroneously to amend the name to ‘Denton’: HP Biogs. ed. Wedgwood and Holt, 270. When elected in 1450, two former Scarborough MPs, Robert Carthorpe* and John Acclom*, stood as the sureties for his attendance, and there is no reason to doubt that he too was a local man. In February 1460 one John Benton was among several Scarborough men who purchased part of a cargo of fruit illegally seized by a carvel belonging to Thomas, Lord Roos, and in 1463, described as ‘of Scarborough, chapman’, he was the defendant in a plea of debt sued by John Robinson*. He may have been our MP’s son. C219/16/1; CIMisc. viii. 262; CP40/810, rot. 100.
