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Samuel Bentley (1785-1868) was a printer and bookseller. He was born on 10 May 1785. He was the eldest surviving son of Edward Bentley (b. 1753), publisher and principal of the accountant's office at the Bank of England, and his wife Anne Nichols, only sister of the printer and publisher John Nichols (1745-1826). Bentley was educated at St Paul's School, London alongside his nephew John Bentley. Upon leaving school on 4 June 1799, he was apprenticed at Stationer's Hall to his maternal uncle John Nichols. Nichols had been apprenticed at Stationers' Hall on 6 February 1759 under his Master William Bowyer (1699-1777) and after serving his apprenticeship, Nichols was taken into partnership with Bowyer in 1766. The Nichols family were printers and publishers. With Bentley's father Edward, John Nichols published the 'General Evening Post' and on his own he printed, published, edited, and contributed articles to the 'Gentleman's Magazine'. His firm printed the House of Lords Journals and were appointed printers of the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Society. He was one of the agents behind the first complete publication of the Domesday Book in 1783. John Nichols was active in the Worshipful Company of Stationer's throughout his career and he was made Master in 1804.
Bentley served his apprenticeship with Nichols and took on his younger brother Richard Bentley (1794-1871) as an apprentice at Stationer's Hall on 6 December 1808. Bentley entered into partnership in the firm of Nichols, Son, and Bentley in April 1812. In 1819 Bentley left the firm and joined his brother Richard Bentley in inaugurating the printing and publishing firm of S. and R. Bentley, located at 107 Dorset Street, Salisbury Square, London. This enterprise rapidly established itself as among the best printers in London. In 1829 Richard Bentley withdrew from the firm. Bentley took on his nephew John as junior partner and in later years the firm expanded to become Bentley, Wilson, and Fley, with larger quarters at Bangor House, Shoe Lane, London.
Bentley edited John Nichols' 'Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century' (1812-16) and Robert Surtees's 'History … of Durham' (1816-40). In 1816 Bentley edited and wrote Latin prefaces for 'Concio de puero Jesu', composed by Desiderius Erasmus and dedicated to the headmaster of St Paul's School, London. Bentley's major antiquarian work was the 'Excerpta Historica', a quarterly periodical reissued as a royal octavo in 1831. Bentley was assisted in this compilation by notable antiquaries: Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas (1799-1848); Sir Charles George Young (1795-1869), Garter king of arms; William Henry Black (1808-1872); and Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy (1804-1878), deputy keeper of the Public Record Office from 1861. Bentley helped Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas prepare for private publication the 'Scrope and Grosvenor Controversy' published in 1832. In 1836 Bentley printed for private circulation 'An abstract of charters and other documents contained in a cartulary of the abbey of St. Peter, Westminster, in the possession of S. Bentley'.
By April 1853 blindness compelled Bentley to abandon his business and discontinue the firm. He retired to Croydon with his wife Sarah Charlotte, whom he had married in 1825. He died at North End, Croydon, on 13 April 1868. He was survived by his wife but they had no children.