He was educated at St Paul's School, London, and after an apprenticeship with Nichols was taken into partnership.
[1][2] In 1819 Bentley went into partnership with his brother Richard, in Dorset Street, Salisbury Square; and on the latter taking over the business of Colburn, he established the firm of Samuel and John Bentley, Wilson, & Fley, at Bangor House, Shoe Lane, John being his nephew.
[1] Bentley's major antiquarian work was the Excerpta Historica (1831), with which he had the assistance of Harris Nicolas, Sir Charles Young, Duffus Hardy, and others.
He indexed the Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century by Nichols, and the History of Durham, by Robert Surtees.
Other works were:[1] Bentley assisted Nicolas in preparing for publication the Scrope and Grosvenor Roll, which he read in manuscript in the Tower of London.