Benbow fought against the French Navy during the Nine Years' War, serving on and later commanding several English warships and taking part in the battles of Beachy Head and Barfleur and La Hogue in 1690 and 1692.

He went on to achieve fame during his military accomplishments, which included fighting against Barbary pirates such as the Salé Rovers, besieging Saint-Malo and seeing action in the West Indies against the French during the War of the Spanish Succession.

[3][4] Benbow instigated the court-martial and subsequent imprisonment or execution of a number of the captains involved, though he did not live to see these results, dying of wounds sustained in battle.

On Narborough's return to England, Herbert was appointed acting commander-in-chief, and made Benbow master aboard HMS Nonsuch on 15 June 1679.

[12] Nonsuch would remain at Tangiers and off the African coast and had a number of successive captains who would go on to achieve flag rank, including George Rooke, Cloudesley Shovell and Francis Wheler.

[17] A North African kufi, "coated with varnish and set in silver" and bearing the inscription "First adventure of Captain John Benbow, and gift to Richard Ridley, 1687" is referred to in 1844 by Charles Dickens in Bentley's Miscellany where he speaks of Shrewsbury's history,[18] and the 1885 Dictionary of National Biography also relates the story.

[16] Benbow was highly regarded as a specialist in both navigation and pilotage,[3] and his evidence given in July 1690 to the preliminary investigation strongly favoured his old patron, Torrington.

After the battles, Benbow returned to Deptford to resume his duties as master attendant, spending a brief period at Portsmouth Dockyard helping to oversee repairs to the fleet.

[13] Benbow returned to active naval service in September 1693, joining Thomas Phillips, the second engineer of the ordnance, in jointly commanding a flotilla of bomb vessels to attack Saint-Malo.

Despite the failure of the initial plan, considerable damage was done, and Benbow's forces were able to take the fort on Quince Rock and disable it, carrying artillery and prisoners away and bringing them to Guernsey.

[19] Benbow was still dissatisfied with the overall result and initiated a court-martial against Captain Henry Tourville, accusing him of cowardice for not bringing his ship in closer.

He has no small obligation to me, but being called in some of the foolish printed papers ‘the famous Captain Benbow’, I suppose has put him a little out of himself, and has made him play the fool, as I guess, in some of his letters.

[30]However, the Admiralty approved of Benbow's conduct and ordered him "to be paid as Rear-Admiral during the time he has been employed this summer on the coast of France ... as a reward for his good service.

[1] The Admiralty again stepped in, and Benbow was finally promoted and appointed commander-in-chief of the squadron before Dunkirk as "Rear-Admiral of the Blue for the duration of this present expedition" and moved aboard the 70-gun HMS Suffolk.

[32] He carried out a number of cruises between March and August 1697, protecting allied trade and escorting the West Indian and Virginian merchant fleets into port.

He also carried out reconnaissance activities on the French fleet in port in Brest in July, before resuming patrol operations off Dunkirk, this time in concert with a number of Dutch ships under Rear-Admiral Philips van der Goes, until the end of the war in September 1697.

This was counter to the English government's desire to see the end of the Scottish colonising efforts, and in June Benbow and the other West Indies governors received orders "not to assist the Scotch colony in Darien".

[38] With the peace becoming increasingly uneasy, the English government became concerned over the possible fate of the Spanish silver fleet, due to arrive in European waters from America.

Benbow was issued secret instructions to find the fleet, and then "to seize and bring them to England, taking care that no embezzlement be made".

They did not achieve a form of collective order until four in the afternoon, after which a partial engagement was fought, lasting about two hours, until nightfall caused the fleets to temporarily break off.

The chase ensued until 24 August, with only Benbow, Walton, and Samuel Vincent aboard HMS Falmouth making active efforts to bring the French to battle.

Benbow summoned a council of war, and the other captains agreed, signing a paper drafted by Kirkby which declared that they believed "that after six days of battle the squadron lacked enough men to continue and that there was little chance of a decisive action, since the men were exhausted, there was a general lack of ammunition, the ships' rigging and masts were badly damaged, and the winds were generally variable and undependable.

[44] Benbow received a letter from du Casse after the engagement: Sir, I had little hopes on Monday last but to have supped in your cabin: but it pleased God to order it otherwise.

The court found Captain Kirkby of HMS Defiance and Cooper Wade of Greenwich guilty of breach of orders, neglect of duty, and the "ill signed paper and consultation ... which obliged the Admiral ... to give over the chase and fight", and condemned them to be shot.

[4] Whetstone reported that the cause of death was "the wound of his leg which he received in battle with Monsieur Du Casse, it never being set to perfection, which malady being aggravated by the discontent of his mind, threw him into a sort of melancholy which ended his life as before.

[5] A marble slab was later laid over the grave, emblazoned with a coat of arms and inscribed: Here lyeth the Body of John Benbow, Esq., Admiral of the White, a true pattern of English Courage, who lost his life in Defence of his Queene & Country, November the 4th, 1702, In the 52nd year of his age, by a wound in his Legg.

[51]Secretary of State Lord Nottingham wrote to Benbow in January 1703, before news of his death had reached London, to inform him that the queen was "extremely well pleased with your conduct and much offended with the baseness of those officers who deserted and betrayed you."

[55] Six months later, Evelyn wrote to a friend complaining, "I have let my house to Captain Benbow, and have the mortification of seeing everyday much of my former labours and expenses there impairing for want of a more polite tenant.

A monument by sculptor John Evan Thomas was erected in 1843 by public subscription in St Mary's Church, Shrewsbury commemorating Benbow as "a skillful and daring seaman whose heroic exploits long rendered him the boast of the British Navy and still point him out as the Nelson of his times.

A recording of Sam Bennett of Ilmington, Warwickshire made by James Madison Carpenter in the 1930s can be heard on the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library Website.