Benn was the first son of Robert Benn, a linen draper of St Nicholas Cole Abbey, London. He had a sister, Anne, who married Edward Goodwyn of Dorking. He matriculated at Broadgates Hall, Oxford, in January 1584, enrolled at the Middle Temple in 1583, and took Batchelor of Arts at Oxford in 1587.
Career
Benn was called to the bar in 1594, practising in Chancery. Benn was appointed Recorder of Kingston in 1610, raised to the bench and elected Middle Temple autumn reader in 1612, lecturing on the Forcible Entry Act 1429. Benn was knighted in London on 15 September 1615 at Hyde Park on James I's return to London from Scotland. He was appointed Recorder of London the following year. In January 1618 Benn was expelled from commons at the Middle Temple for offending Lord Chief Justice Sir Henry Montagu.
Essays
Some manuscripts of Benns works survive including a collection of about seventy essays held at Bedfordshire County Record Office. Benn's style is noted to be more deferential towards the supremacy of the King, harking back to an Elizabethan tradition and contrasting with attitudes of some of his Jacobean contemporaries. The subjects covered in the essays are wide-ranging and reflect Benn's personal views. One is entitled Of preparations towards Mariadg and contains advice to his then new-born daughter, Amabella.
Family
Benn married Jane Evelyn in about 1601. Several sources state she was the daughter of John Evelyn of Godstone and Kingston and his wife, Elizabeth Stevens and that a George Evelyn, a Six Clerk in Chancery, was an uncle. However, a family tree chart of diarist, John Evelyn, from Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn... suggests that for George to have been an uncle, Jane would have been a granddaughter of John and Elizabeth. In 1605 Benn purchased Norbiton Hall, in Norbiton to the east of Kingston, from the estate of George Evelyn who had died in 1603. His residence at Norbiton is now commemorated by a green plaque. The couple had at least two children; Charles and Amabella.
Death
Anthony Benn died in 1618. At his death he possessed a messuage with appurtenances called 'Popes' with of land at Norbiton, all held of the bailiffs of Kingston. This 'Popes' is thought not to have been Norbiton Hall however, for Sir Anthony's son and heir Charles Benn was only eight and daughter, Amabella, two years old at the time and Lady Benn is known to have had a house in Kingston a few years later. Little more is known of Benn's son Charles. As Amabella is referred to by several sources as Anthony Benn's heiress, the inference is that he died young. Benn's widow commissioned Benn's memorial effigy and altar tomb, located in the south wall of the chancel of All Saints Church, Kingston upon Thames. It contains Benn's recumbent effigy in his lawyer's robe and ruff collar and cuffs; his hands in prayer, once broken off but since restored. The arch of the recess is a coffered round one of alabaster; the base is low and has shields, both of which were faded but since restored; one is charged quarterly 1 and 4 a griffon on a chief or three molets sable; 2 and 3 or two bars sable between nine martlets sable, three, three and three.
