His younger brother was the botanist Alfred William Bennett.

As a young man he collected plant specimens in Cornwall and the New Forest.

[1][2] Bennett was the last Quaker in Britain to be disowned for holding different theological opinions.

In 1873, he was disowned for supporting the heretical views of Charles Voysey.

[3][4] He was a member of the British National Association of Spiritualists and the first secretary of the Society for Psychical Research.