He entered the collegiate classes of the Belfast Academical Institution in 1816, being one of the original alumni, and took gold medals in logic (1817) and moral philosophy (1818).
He gained also in 1821 the faculty prize ("The Crusades"), and Dr. Tennant's gold medal ("Sketch of Irish Authors in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries").
For so young a writer it was a work of uncommon judgment and research, exceedingly well written, with an eye for scenery and a taste for economics as well as for antiquities.
Pinkerton's papers were submitted to George Benn for publication, but he found employment of them impracticable, and states in his preface to his history, "It is all my own work from beginning to end.
This supplementary volume, though the proof-sheets were "corrected by a kind friend", the late John Carlisle, head of the English department in the Royal Academical Institution, bears evidence of the author's affecting statement: "Before I had proceeded very far, my sight entirely failed."
[4] Edward and George Benn were members of the non-subscribing Presbyterian (Unitarian) body, but wide in their sympathies and broad in their charities beyond the limits of their sect.
Edward was the founder, and George the benefactor, of three hospitals in Belfast (the "Eye, Ear, and Throat", the "Samaritan", and the "Skin Diseases"), and their gifts to educational institutions were munificent.