or Banc, in law. See Banc.

Free-Bench signifies that estate in copyhold-lands which the wife, being espoused a virgin, has, after the decease of her husband, for her dower, according to the custom of the manor. As to this free-bench, several manors have several customs; and in the manors of East and West Enborne, in the county of Berks, and other parts of England, there is a custom, that when a copyhold tenant dies, the widow shall have her free-bench in all the deceased husband's lands, whilst she lives single and chaste; but if she commits incontinency, she shall forfeit her estate: nevertheless, upon her coming into the court of the manor, riding on a black ram, and having his tail in her hand, and at the same time repeating a form of words prescribed, the steward is obliged, by the custom of the manor, to re-admit her to her free-bench.

King's Bench, a court in which the king was formerly accustomed to sit in person, and on that account was moved with the king's household. This was originally the only court in Westminster-hall, and from this it is thought that the courts of common pleas and exchequer were derived. As the king in person is still precluded in law to sit in this court, though only represented by his judges, it is said to have supreme authority; and the proceedings in it are supposed to be coram nobis, that is, before the king. This court consists of a lord chief justice and three other justices or judges, who are invested with a sovereign jurisdiction over all matters whether of a criminal or public nature. The chief justice has a salary of £5,500 per annum, and the other judges £2,400 each.

All crimes against the public good, though they do not injure any particular person, are under the cognizance of this court; and no private subject can suffer any unlawful violence or injury against his person, liberty, or possessions, but a proper remedy is afforded him here; not only for satisfaction of damages sustained, but for the punishment of the offender; and wherever this court meets with an offence contrary to the first principles of justice, it may punish it. It frequently proceeds on indictments found before other courts, and removed by certiorari into this. Persons illegally committed to prison, though by the king and council, or either of the houses of parliament, may be bailed in it; and in some cases even upon legal commitments. Writs of mandamus are issued by this court, for the restoring of officers in corporations, &c., unjustly turned out, and freemen wrongfully disfranchised.

The court of King's Bench is now divided into a crown side and plea side; the one determining criminal, and the other civil, causes.

On the crown side, or crown office, it takes cognizance of all criminal causes, from high treason down to the most trivial misdemeanor or breach of the peace. Into this court also indictments from all inferior courts may be removed by writ of certiorari; and tried either at bar, or at nisi prius, by a jury of the county out of which the indictment is brought. The judges of this court are the supreme coroners of the kingdom. And the court itself is the principal court of criminal jurisdiction known to the laws of England. For which reason, by the coming of the Court of King's Bench into any county (as it was removed to Oxford on account of the sicknesses in 1665), all former commissions of eyre and terminer, and general gaol-delivery, are at once absorbed and determined ipso facto; in the same manner. manner as, by the old Gothic and Saxon constitutions, *jure vetusto obtinuit, quicquid omnia inferiora judicia, dicente jus regis*. Into this Court of King's Bench hath reverted all that was good and salutary of the *bar-chamber*.

On the plea side, this court determines all personal actions commenced by bill or writ; as actions of debt, upon the case, detinue, trover, ejectment, trespass, waste, &c. against any person in the custody of the marshal of the court, as every person sued here is supposed to be by law.

The officers on the crown side are the clerk and secondary of the crown; and on the side of the pleas there are two chief clerks or prothonotaries, and their secondary and deputy, the cuitos brevium, two clerks of the papers, the clerk of the declarations, the signer and sealer of bills, the clerk of the rules, clerk of the errors, and clerk of the bails; to which may be added the filazers, the marshal of the court, and the crier.

**Amicable Bench.** See **Amicable**.

**Benchers,** in the inns of court, the senior members of the society, who are invested with the government thereof.

**Bencoolen,** a fort and town of Asia, on the south-west coast of the island of Sumatra, belonging to the British. The place is known-at sea by a slender mountain called the *Sugar Loaf*, which rises about 20 miles inland. About a quarter of a mile from the sea stands an Indian village, whose houses are small and low, and built on potts. The country about Bencoolen is mountainous and woody, and the air unwholesome, the mountains being continually covered with thick heavy clouds that produce lightning, thunder, and rain. There is no beef to be had, except that of buffaloes, which is not very palatable; and indeed provisions of all kinds, except fruit, are pretty scarce. The chief trade is in pepper, of which great quantities grow on the island. There are frequent bickerings betwixt the natives and the factory, to the no small injury of the East-India Company. The factory was once entirely deserted; and had not the natives found that trade decreased by reason of their absence, it is scarce probable that ever the English would have been invited there again. E. Long. 101. 5. S. Lat. 4. 5.

**Bend,** in heraldry, one of the nine honourable ordinaries, containing a third part of the field when charged, and a fifth when plain. It is sometimes, like other ordinaries, indented, ingrailed, &c., and is either dexter or sinister. See **Heraldry**, n° 19, 20.

In **Bend**, is when any things, borne in arms, are placed obliquely from the upper corner to the opposite lower, as the bend lies.

**Bender,** a town of Beffarabia in European Turkey, seated on the river Niefter, in E. Long. 29. 5. N. Lat. 46. 40. It is remarkable for being the place of retreat of Charles XII. after he was defeated by the Russians at the battle of Pultowa in 1709.

**Bendermassen,** a town of the island of Borneo in Asia, and capital of a kingdom of the same name. It has a good harbour; and stands in E. Long. 113. 50. S. Lat. 2. 40.

**Bendidia,** in antiquity, a festival, not unlike the Bacchanalia, celebrated by the Athenians in honour of Diana.

**Bending,** in a general sense, the reducing a straight body into a curve, or giving it a crooked form.

The bending of timber-boards, &c. is effected by means of heat, whereby their fibres are so relaxed that you may bend them into any figure.

**Bending,** in the sea-language, the tying two ropes or cables together: thus they lay, bend the cable, that is, make it fast to the ring of the anchor; bend the sail, make it fast to the yard.

**Bends,** in a ship, the same with what is called *waits*, or *waless*; the outmost timbers of a ship's side, on which men set their feet in climbing up. They are reckoned from the water, and are called the first, second, or third bend. They are the chief strength of a ship's sides; and have the beams, knees, and foot-hooks, bolted to them.

**Bendy,** in heraldry, is the field divided into four, six, or more parts, diagonally, and varying in metal and colour.—The general custom of England is to make an even number; but in other countries they regard it not, whether even or odd.

**Bencaped,** among sailors. A ship is said to be bencaped when the water does not flow high enough to bring her off the ground, out of the dock, or over the bar.

**Benedetto (St.),** a considerable town of the Mantuan, in Italy, in E. Long. 11. 25. N. Lat. 45. 0.

**Benedicite,** among ecclesiastical writers, an appellation given to the song of the three children in the fiery furnace, on account of its beginning with the word *benedicite.*—The use of this song in Christian worship is very ancient, it appearing to have been sung in all the churches as early as St Chrysostom's time.

**Benedict XIV.** Pope, (Prolper Lambertini of Bologna), celebrated for his learning and moderation, which gained him the esteem of all sensible Protestants. He was the patron of learned men and celebrated artists; and an elaborate writer, on theological subjects. His works make 12 vols in folio. He died in 1758.

**Benedict (St.),** the founder of the order of the Benedictin monks, was born in Italy, about the year 480. He was sent to Rome when he was very young, and there received the first part of his education. At 14 years of age he was removed from thence to Sublaco, about 40 miles distant. Here he lived a most ascetic life, and shut himself up in a cavern, where nobody knew anything of him except St Romanus, who, we are told, used to descend to him by a rope, and to supply him with provisions. But being afterwards discovered by the monks of a neighbouring monastery, they chose him for their abbot. Their manners, however, not agreeing with those of Benedict, he returned to his solitude; whither many persons followed him, and put themselves under his direction, so that in a short time he built 12 monasteries. In the year 528, or the following, he retired to mount Cassino, where idolatry was still prevalent, there being a temple of Apollo erected here. He instructed the people in the adjacent country, and having converted them, he broke the image of Apollo, and built two chapels on the mountain. Here he founded also a monastery, and instituted the order of his name, which in time became so famous and extended over all Europe. It was here too that he composed his *Regula Monachorum*, which Gregory the Great speaks of as the most sensible and best written. written piece of that kind ever published. The time of his death is uncertain, but is placed between 540 and 550. He was looked upon as the Elipha of his time; and is reported to have wrought a great number of miracles, which are recorded in the second book of the dialogues of St Gregory the Great.

Benedict, abbot of Peterborough, was educated at Oxford, became a monk in the monastery of Christ's church in Canterbury, and some time after was chosen prior by the members of that society. Though he had been a great admirer of Archbishop Becket, and wrote a life of that prelate, he was so much esteemed by Henry II. that by the influence of that prince he was elected abbot of Peterborough, A.D. 1177. He assisted at the coronation of Richard I. A.D. 1189; and was advanced to be keeper of the great seal, A.D. 1191. But he did not long enjoy this high dignity, as he died on Michaelmas day, A.D. 1193. Besides his Life of Archbishop Becket, he composed a History of Henry II. and Richard I. from A.D. 1170 to A.D. 1192; which hath been much and justly esteemed by many of our greatest antiquaries, as containing one of the best accounts of the transactions of those times. A beautiful edition of this work was published at Oxford, in two volumes, by Mr Hearne, A.D. 1735.