Clara Foster Bent
William Malcolm Bent’s Autograph Book
The first entry in 13-year-old William Malcolm “Mack” Bent’s autograph book was that of his stepmother, Clara Foster Bent, who was the third wife of Ambrose Bent.
Ambrose’s first wife was Amoret Elizabeth Morse, the daughter of Amherst Martin Morse and Susanna Caroline Leonard. Amoret died at age 37 after 13 years of marriage to Ambrose. They had no children.
Ambrose’s second wife, Eunice Ross, was Malcolm’s mother. She was the daughter of Farmington merchant John Ross and his wife Rebecca Chipman. Eunice married the 55-year-old widower when she was 31. She had Malcolm and died the next year.
When Malcolm was six, his father, then 62 years old, married Clara.¹ She was the 29-year-old daughter of William Young Foster, a Bridgetown merchant, and Minetta Leonard, herself daughter of “Squire” Seth Leonard of Paradise.
The first entry in William Malcolm “Mack” Bent’s autograph book.
So Ambrose’s first wife, Amoret, and his third wife, Clara, were first cousins! However, it wasn’t unusual in those days for widowers to marry close relatives of their deceased wives, nor was an age difference.
The marriages show the close connections between three local merchants – Ambrose Bent of Paradise, John Ross of Farmington, and William Foster Young of Paradise. It also showed how interrelated local families were – you looked for your marriage partners among those families you knew best.
Clara was the only mother Mack had ever known, and he was the only child she would raise, as she didn’t give birth to any children. She was a woman of style and literary tastes with a huge library for her times. It would not be surprising that this Victorian lady would want Mack to have a trendy autograph book. Clara died in 1938 at the age of 88 and was remembered as being protective of her garden lest the local children stray into it when walking by.
Young Malcome had lots of “status” in Paradise; let’s hope he got some love too.
Written by Barbara Bishop