Gervase Bennet

Who is Gervase Bennet?

Gervase Bennet was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons of England between 1653 and 1659. Bennet coined the term "Quakers" to refer to the Religious Society of Friends.

Bennet was Mayor of Derby in 1645 when there was a plague in Derby. He was also a magistrate and in 1650 with Nathaniel Barton conducted the trial of George Fox, founder of the Religious Society of Friends. It was when Fox told the bench "Tremble at the word of the Lord" that Bennet devised the term "Quakers" to refer to members of the Society, a nickname which entered common parlance.

In 1653 Bennet was nominated for the Barebones Parliament as representative for Derbyshire. In 1654, he was elected Member of Parliament for Derby in the First Protectorate Parliament and was returned in the Second Protectorate Parliament in 1656 and the Third Protectorate Parliament of 1659.

Bennet owned estates of Littleover and Snelston. He married a coheiress of the Rowe family, and had a son, Robert. He was aged 50 in 1662 and the estate was sold in 1682.