Benham, William and Daniel, and Allied family papers

This collection is composed of many items which have been tipped-in to a bound volume. These items include a Benham family tree, general historical survey, and original and facsimile correspondence between Benham family members. Included with the correspondence are several original envelopes with British stamps and wax seals. There are numerous journal entries by Daniel Benham (born in 1788) describing his childhood experiences in school as well as his mother’s death and his apprenticeship to his step father. However, he decides to join the British navy and his entries include his experiences as a stowaway, various encounters with illnesses, his eyewitness account of mutiny and the punishments, and his descriptions of the land and people he saw on voyages to America, Grenada, Barbados, and Antigua. Daniel sailed on several different ships including the British Sloop of War the “Columbine.” This collection also includes extracts of British Naval Officers’ diaries, daily journals of life at sea, newspaper clippings from the Grenada Gazette (1808), and family trees and histories of the Curtis family. Also included are birth certificates, family correspondence, burial certificates, and marriage licenses, all of the Benham family.