A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Bennett, James Cooper
BENNETT. (Commander, 1826. f-p., 21; h-p., 13.)
James Cooper Bennett was born, 6 Jan. 1801, at Edinburgh.
This officer entered the Navy, 3 Jan. 1813, as Sec.-cl. Vol., on board the Adamant 50, Capt. Matthew Buckle, bearing the flag at Leith of Rear-Admiral Wm. Albany Otway. Removing in March following to the Endymion, of 48 guns and 319 men, Capt. Henry Hope, he assisted at the blockade of New London, the expedition up the Penobscot, and the capture, 15 Jan. 1815, after a bnrilliant action of two hours and a half, in which the British lost 11 men killed and 14 wounded, and the enemy 35 killed and 70 wounded, of the American frigate President, of 56 guns and 465 men. Subsequently to the surrender of Buonaparte we find him proceeding to the East Indies, where, until the close of 1819, he served on board the Iphigenia 36, Capt. Andw. King, and Conway 26, Capt. Edw. Barnard, and contributed, in the boats of the latter ship and of the Eden, to the destruction, in the early part of that year, of some Arab pirates at Bahhreen, in the Persian Gulf. While next serving in the Sybille 44, flag-ship in the West Indies of Sir Chas. Rowley, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, by commission dated 22 Aug. 1821; but, prior to his return to England in 1823, he had the misfortune to lose an arm, in consequence of which accident he was eventually awarded, 24 Jan. 1824, the usual pension of 91l. 5s. In the course of the latter year Mr. Bennett, who had been employed for short periods in the Arachne 18, and Ramillies 74, again sailed for the West Indies in the Rattlesnake 28, Capt. Hugh Patton, and there joined the Isis 50, flag-ship of Sir Lawrence Wm. Halsted, by whom, after holding command of the Union, Renegade, and Speedwell schooners, he was, in 1826, placed in charge of the Magnificent, hospital and store-ship at Port Royal. He was officially promoted to his present rank on 26 Oct. in the same year, and then, enfeebled in health from the effects of long servitude in small vessels under a tropical sun, returned home. Since that period, unable to procure employment afloat, he has twice accepted the appointment of Inspecting Commander in the Coast Guard. On the first occasion he filled that post from 15 June, 1832, until 1835. His resumption of the office, which he still holds, took place 25 Feb. 1843.
Commander Bennett married, 28 July, 1831, Jane, third daughter of the late Jas. Law, Esq., of Elvingston, co. Haddington, N.B., and by that lady, who died in 1836, has three surviving children.