English: A port bow view of the ‘Prince George’ under sail, attributed to John Hood. Pen and wash drawing. No. 16.

From an album which has a bookplate of the Bishop of Columbia; the arms on the bookplate are the See of Columbia impaling Bentley, but the connection is not clear.

Annotations by Commander C. C. Pitcairn Jones in his copy of ‘The Commissioned Sea Officers of the Royal Navy 1660-1815’ give 1757 as the year in which ‘Prince George’ was Anson’s flagship in his action on May 3rd 1747 against the French off Cape Finisterre. Bentley was his flag captain (W. Laird Cloews, ‘The Royal Navy – a history’, Vol. III, p. 125). The ‘Prince George’ sailed on 9/4/1747 and returned 13/6/1747. However, in the squadron under Hawke that left Plymouth on 9/8/1747, John Bentley commanded ‘Defiance’. After the successful action of 14/10/1747, Hawke and his squadron returned to Portsmouth on 31/10/1747 (ibid, p. 127-8). There is evidence in the Museum’s MSS that Bentley probably transferred to ‘Defiance’ at the end of May 1747.