Alderman Henry Bengough

Every day, hundreds of cars drive past Henry Bengough’s lasting legacy to the people of Bristol, and yet comparatively few people know of its existence, and even less know of its history. Bengough’s House lies on the roundabout off Passage Road/Crow Lane, Henbury, opposite the Old Crow public house. Opened in 1996, it is a residential/nursing home, providing accommodation and care for forty older people. It is owned and managed by the Trustees of Bristol Charities, and is named after Alderman Henry Bengough.

But who was Henry Bengough, and how is it that the name of a man, who died almost two hundred years ago, is attached to this modern care home in north Bristol?

The story starts on a cold December day in 1817, when the assembled members of the city’s Common Council (the governing body of the corporation, consisting of the mayor, twelve aldermen and thirty councillors) received some important news. They were informed that an anonymous member of the Corporation had decided that, since it had been 400 years since any member of the Corporation had endowed a hospital “as a perpetual place of refuge for the aged and infirm”, he would found an almshouse, at his own expense.

This secret benefactor proposed to execute a deed granting to the Corporation, in perpetuity, the reversion and inheritance of an estate that he had purchased for that purpose. The properties were situated in the parishes of Nempnett and Blagdon in North Somerset and the annual rental was estimated at £600.

The donor proposed that the Corporation should act as trustees and allow the income to accumulate and that when the entire property “had fallen in hand”, an almshouse should be erected for the residence of poor aged people in the proportion of three women to one man; half the residents were to be of the Church of England and the remainder to be “Dissenters”.

At the next meeting of the Common Council, it was announced that the donor was Alderman Henry Bengough, an eminent solicitor, who was suffering from what proved to be a fatal illness. He died in April 1818.

A full-length marble figure of Alderman Bengough is situated in the Lord Mayor’s Chapel. Although he was a Unitarian, he had, unusually, expressed a desire to be buried in the Chapel. It is a splendid memorial, and it can be seen today, with the Alderman in the act of examining a scroll, beneath which is inscribed:

“In Memory of Henry Bengough Esquire, Alderman of this city
Who died 10th April 1818, in the 80th year of his age. He was an eminent solicitor, deeply experienced in the Law, and gained general esteem by his integrity, talent, and independence.
He acquired by patience, vigilance and economy, great wealth. He was of strong intellect, and his mind was eminently stored with historical and biographical anecdotes. In his life time he gave an estate of considerable value, for the purpose of endowing an almshouse in this city for poor men and women of all religious denominations. He took a zealous and active interest in the welfare of the city, and particularly in the rights and privileges of its corporation.
His remains, at his own request, are interred in this chapel, and his funeral was attended by the Mayor and Aldermen, from respect to his Memory”

But what else do we know about this man? He originated from north Herefordshire, and in addition to being a leading lawyer, he became very wealthy from his involvement in a wide range of business activities, including banking and book production. He was a member of the old city Corporation from 1797 to his death in 1818, and at one time, he was described as “all powerful.” He held the posts of Sheriff in 1789/90, and Mayor in 1792/93.

We know that his father was a clerk in holy orders, although Bengough himself was a Unitarian. This may explain the fact that he specified that half of the residents in his proposed almshouse should be “dissenters.” Bengough was a member of the Lewins Mead Unitarian Church. Once described as “The Mayor’s Nest”, the congregation consisted, at the end of the eighteenth century, of almost the entire body of the City’s aldermen. A splendid new chapel had opened in 1791, and owing to the large number of suburban families that drove to the chapel in coaches, a mews was built in the chapel yard to shelter their horses.

Bengough married the sister of Thomas Cadell, a bookseller who became famous as the head of his profession for over 25 years. Cadell was born in Wine Street, Bristol, and went on to become a London alderman. Bengough was to make a great deal of money from joining with Cadell in the purchase of valuable copyrights. Interestingly, it is said that despite his good fortune in this particular business, Bengough “had as little love for literature as a cow for a melody” and he used to say that the only line of poetry he ever remembered was “I love my own ancestral trees.” It is said that he made £40,000 alone from the copyright attached to “Blackstone’s commentary” and the novel, “Clarissa Harlowe.”

Bengough was also a partner in a very successful local bank, called the Bristol City Bank. The Corporation’s accounts in 1794 recorded a loan from this bank. It carried out its business at 46, High Street, until it was sold to the National Provincial Bank in 1837.

For legal reasons, Bengough’s intention to found an almshouse almost never occurred. The income from the leases was accumulated, but it was not until 1878 that there was enough money available for the project to proceed. Due to the passage of time, it fell to his nephew and heir, George Bengough (1793 – 1856), to ensure that his vision was fulfilled. George was an accountant, who served as a City councillor from 1829 to 1835. He was also one of the original trustees of Bristol Charities, serving from 1836 to 1850.

Under the terms of the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835, the responsibility for Henry Bengough’s bequest was transferred from the old Corporation to the Trustees of Bristol Charities. In 1878, the Trustees built the almshouse, in Queen Anne style, on a piece of land in Horfield Road. Foster and Wood designed the building, which cost £6,197. In 1906 it was recorded that there were eighteen married couples, and two single women in occupation.

The almshouse continued to provide accommodation for over a hundred years until, in 1990, the Trustees decided to sell the almshouse and put the proceeds towards the construction of a care home for older people. The present site at Crow Lane, Henbury, was acquired in June 1992, and the care home opened in May 1996.

It is pleasing to note that one hundred and eighty five years after his death, Henry Bengough’s stated desire to accommodate older people continues.