Thomas Benson (1708–1772)

[3][a] He was elected to Parliament as the member for Barnstaple in 1747, and the following year he acquired a lease of the island of Lundy, off the North Devon coast, for a rent of £60 per annum from John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower.

[5] In 1747 he obtained a contract from the Government to transport English convicts, and gave the usual bond to the Sheriff to ship them to Virginia or to Maryland.

[7][2] In 1752 he obtained insurance at Exeter for his ship Nightingale which was fully laden with a valuable cargo of pewter, linen and salt, supposedly sailing for Maryland in America.

However he gave orders to his captain and relative by marriage, John Lancey, to secretly unload the goods onto Lundy, and to scuttle the vessel.

The plot was discovered by the authorities following a confession by a crew member and Lancey was convicted, and hanged at Execution Dock in London on 7 June 1754.

[5][11] In Portugal he was joined by two of his remaining ships, and with his nephew Thomas Stafford he established one of the largest English trading companies in that country.