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istry in 1853, and removed to Worcester, Mass.,
where he taught a private school for yoimg
ladies, which he continued until his death.
On June 18, 1834, Rev. Mr. Bent was married
to Catherine E. D. Metcalf, eldest daughter
of Col. Eliab W. Metcalf, of Cambridge,
and had four children by birth and one by
adoption ; three of whom, including the adopted
one, survived the father.
"Mr. Bent was a man of rare abilities, and,
SOUTHEASTERN MASSACHUSETTS 637
vard College in 1832, and completed them at
Phillips Academy in Andover. He entered
Harvard and held a distinguished rank in college,
and was graduated with high honors with
the class of 1831. After leaving college young
Bent began the study of divinity at the Episcopal
Theological Seminary in New York and
finished his studies under the instruction of
Bishop Alexander Viets Griswold, at Salem.
He was ordained at Salem, and was afterward
instituted as rector over the following churches :
Grace Church, in New Bedford, where he remained
five years: St. John's, in Charlestown,
two years St. ; Thomas's, in Taunton, five j'ears ;
St. John's, in office he has held uninterruptedly until the
present
Bangor, Maine, two and a half
years All ; Saints', in Worcester, two and a half
years; and Grace Church, again, in New Bedford,
a few months. He retired from the min-
time. The corporation employs in good
times about one thousand men, chiefly in building
cotton machinery. Mr. Bent has been and
still is connected with numerous other large
interests. He was a director of the Corliss
Steam Engine Company, of Providence, R. I.;
director of the Nemasket Mills, Taunton; has
been for many years and now is director of the
Boston Manufacturers' Mutual Fire Insurance
Company; director of the Corr Manufacturing
Company, of Taunton; director of the Machinists'
iSTational Bank of Taunton; president
of the Liberty Square Warehouse Company of
Boston. He has served as an alderman of
Taunton for two terms (1877 and 1878) and
was chairman of the board of commissioners of
the Sinking Fund of the city for twenty years.
Although repeatedly sought he has declined
political offices and appointments other than
municipal, among them that of member of
the special commission on the unemployed, created
by the Legislature of 1894, to which he
was appointed by Governor Greenhalge. In
when engaged in the active duties of the ministry,
was very popular and efficient as rector.
Much might be said truly in praise of his
fidelity to all the details of parochial duty, the
interest he took in promoting musical taste
in its sacred department, his zeal in missionary
enterprises, and the genial flow which he manifested
in social life. Not a few of his former
parishioners and friends will long cherish a
most kindly remembrance of him as a beloved
and respected pastor." He died Nov. 4, 1856,
at his home in Worcester, Mass., aged fortysix
years.
(VIII) William H. Bent, son of Rev. Nathaniel
T. and Catherine E. D. (Metcalf) Bent,
was born Jan. 2, 1839, in Cambridge, Mass.
He was educated in private and public schools
and fitted for civil engineering. When he was
seventeen years old (in 1856) he entered the
extensive machinery works of William Mason,
Taunton, and he has been connected with them
ever since except for a short time after the
panic of 1857, when that business was temporarily
suspended. Returning in 1859, he gradually
worked up to the position of chief executive
officer of the works, assuming such position
at the death of Mr. Mason, in May, 1883.
politics
In 1873, when the business was incorporated
under the name of the Mason Machine Works,
he became treasurer of the corporation, which
he is a Republican. He was a delegate
to the Republican National Convention of 1888,
and is a defender of protection, a frequent
contributor to the press in its interests, was
president of the Home Market Club of Boston
for three years, and president of the Arkwright
Club, of Boston, for three years. In religious
faith he is an Episcopalian, and is a prominent
lay member of the church organization. He isa
delegate to the diocesan convention of the
Episcopal Church of Massachusetts, was,a member
of the committee of fifteen appointed by
Bishop Laurence in 1894 to report a plan for
the division of the diocese, a member of the
Episcopalian Club of Massachusetts, and senior
warden of St. Thomas's Episcopal Church,
Taunton, for many years. He belongs to the
Union Club of Boston.
On June 14, 1865, Mr. Bent was married
to Harriet F. Hendee, daughter of Charles
J. Hendee, of Boston. They had three sons,
Arthur Cleveland, Frederick Hendee and
Charles (died in infancy). The two sons who
lived to maturity were both graduated from
Harvard University in 1889. Mrs. Bent died
in 1873, and Mr. Bent married (second) Jan.
29, 1885, Sarah E. Chesbrough, daughter of
Lewis R. Chesbrough, of New York.
Metcalf. The Metcalf family to which Mr.
Bent belongs through the maternal line is
descended from Michael Metcalf, who was born
in Tatterford, County of Norfolk, England, in
1586. He followed the occupation of weaver