Closing Days
The mounting differences between Macquarie, Bent and Bent's brother led Macquarie to write to Lord Bathurst offering to resign unless both Bents were removed from office. Bathurst did so in January 1816, siding with Macquarie rather than the Bents. Before notification of Bent's dismissal arrived in the colony, Bent had died on 10 November 1815.
Bent left a widow and four children, and a fifth child was born subsequently to his death. Unfortunately, he left no estate to his wife and children on his death. Macquarie graciously wrote to Lord Bathurst recommending the payment of a pension to widow in view of Bent's services to the colony. Bathurst approved, and a pension of £200 a year was granted to Mrs Bent in 1817. She subsequently returned to England.
Read more about this topic: Ellis Bent
Famous quotes containing the words closing and/or days:
“From Harmony, from heavenly Harmony
This universal Frame began:
From Harmony to Harmony
Through all the Compass of the Notes it ran,
The Diapason closing full in Man.”
—John Dryden (1631–1700)
“Do not human beings have a hard service on earth, and are not their days like the days of a laborer? Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like laborers who look for their wages, so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Job 7:1-3.