The following brief article appears in Volume 153 (April 1999) (Whole Number 610) of the New England Historical and Genealogical Register on pages 219 and 220. It discusses John Bent of Sudbury, Mass., and the claims of some that the surname of his wife Martha was Blanchard. The text of the article follows: "Some Notes on John(1) Bent of Sudbury, Massachusetts, and His Grandfather, John(8) Bent of Weyhill, Hampshire, England. "Nearly a hundred years ago, E.C. Felton published in the Register information on the Bent family from the parish registers of Weyhill, Hampshire, and from the Consistory Court of Winchester (30). While accurate for the most part, two items need updating: "John(8) Bent was perhaps the son of Edward Bent who was buried at Weyhill on 19 May 1566, and perhaps of the widow Anna Bent who was buried there on 15 July 1754. (31) "Felton notes the burial of a John Bent on 12 July 1587 and of Joan Bent, widow, on 7 September 1588. (32) However, the former is simply not there in the Weyhill parish register unless it is out of order and on one of the pages that are partially illegible on the microfiche. The latter entry actually reads Johan Bent vidua in the Latin. While this clearly should be interpreted as "Joan Bent widow," the fact is that John(8) Bent made his will on 19 June 1588, and it was proved on 18 September 1588 in the Consistory Court of Winton. Thus one suspects that the rector misinterpreted his own notes when he entered the burial in his register and the burial was that of John(8). "John(1) Bent of Sudbury, Massachusetts, was married during a period for which there is a gap in the Weyhill registers. The surname of his wife Martha is unknown. Some have claimed that she was a Blanchard, but this seems to have been based on a misinterpretation of documents (34) in which Thomas Blanchard is identified as John's brother-in-law. Blanchard was married to John's sister Agnes. Given that John and Martha accompanied Peter Noyes to America and that they named a son Peter, it seems possible that Martha was connected with the Noyes family." (30) E.C. Felton, Esq,, "The English Ancestors of John Bent of Sudbury," Register, 49 (1895): 65-67. See also Allen H. Bent, "The Bent Family in America" (Boston: David Clapp & Son, 1900). (31) Weyhill Parish Registers, FHL microfiche 6,343,473. Felton's article claims that there is a will for an Edward Bent, dated 1558, "in the Registry at Winchester." However, thanks to the help of Clifford Stott, we see that this was apparently a misreading of the index of the Consistory Court of Winchester. At the index entry for the will of Edward Bone a downstroke from the entry above meets the "e" in Bone, making it look like a "t". In the original will, which was proved probably on 6 Sept. 1558, the name clearly has no "t" at the end (the index on FHL microfilm 186,677, the will in Box A-B, 1558, FHL microfilm 186,695). In any case, this was certainly not the will of Edward Bent buried in 1566. (32) Register, 49:66. (33) Ibid, 49:67. (34) See Henry F.Waters, "Passengers and Vessels that have Arrived in America, . . . The Voyage of the Jonathan to New England, 1639," Register, 32 (1878): 407-411. Helen Schatvet Ullmann, C.G, a volunteer editor of the Register and an editor for the Newbury Street Press, is the author of numerous articles in genealogical journals and the recent Descendants of Peter Mills formerly named Pieter Wouterse vander Meulen (Camden, Me.,: Penobscot Press, 1998).