Built in 1911, Bent House at 138 East Windsor Road in North Lonsdale is an example of the Arts and Crafts building style popular at the time. Behind its walls hides a story of religious reformation and ecclesiastical artistry.

Bent House, 138 East Windsor Road, March 2023. Photo courtesy of Paul Haston.

The house’s first occupant was Robert Trueman Bent (mistakenly referenced as R J Bent in the District of North Vancouver Heritage Register). Born in 1850 in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, to parents who farmed, Robert Trueman Bent’s family traces back centuries to its origins in England. The earliest records in the family tree are of an Edward Bent, born 1509 in Weyhill, Hampshire, and his father, born in 1488. For generations their descendants lived in Weyhill, until John Bent (Robert’s ancestor six generations removed) migrated to the Americas in 1638.

John Bent (1596-1672), who settled in the frontier town of Sudbury, was part of the ‘Great Migration’ of around 20,000 Puritans who emigrated from England to Massachusetts and its neighbouring colonies between 1630 and 1640. They sought reformation of the church by modelling godly communities in New England.

*Painting of The Confidence*, 1638, Public Domain

Described in the passenger list as a husbandman (or farmer), John Bent set sail on The Confidence with his wife Martha and five children (all under 12) in April 1638. From Southampton, the ship with 84 passengers was bound for Boston. They followed in the footsteps of the original Pilgrims, a group of English religious separatists who had sailed from England to establish in 1620 the original Plymouth Colony, just to the south of Massachusetts Bay.

“Early Puritans of New England Going to Church”, George Henry Boughton, 1867, Public Domain

John Bent’s descendants were to remain in Massachusetts until the 1760s when a proclamation by Governor Lawrence of Nova Scotia invited settlement of lands previously occupied by the deposed Acadians, settlers originating from France.

Eleven generations down from his identified English origins, Robert Trueman Bent grew up in Lakeville, Nova Scotia. There, he married Jennie R Noyes. He was 38 at the time of the marriage in 1889. She was 28. A daughter, Violet Jean Bent was born two years later, in 1891.

Jennie, Robert’s wife died young. By the time of Canada’s 1911 Census, he is listed as a widower living with his daughter in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.

Sometime later that year, Robert and Violet moved to North Vancouver, taking up residence at 138 East Windsor Road, known now as the Bent House (or Bent Residence in the district Heritage Register). The archival BC City Directories cite Robert as the owner of the house in 1912, but by 1913 he and Violet were resident at a house in West Queens Road (later numbered 144, now also referenced, confusingly, in the Heritage Register as the Bent Residence).

Each house, built respectively in 1911 and 1912, has similar styles of construction and the District of North Vancouver Heritage Register describes them as having been built by Bent. However, Robert’s occupation is referenced in the 1911 Census and on his marriage certificate as being a commercial traveller, and on his daughter’s marriage certificate as being a salesman. No record of any building trade experience has been found and the timeline is questionable. In 1911, the year Bent House was built, Robert who was 60 was living in Nova Scotia. A likely assumption, given the timeline and his background, is that in both cases Robert was the financier of the purchase transaction rather than the builder per se.

The 1913 directory describes Violet as a stenographer, working at the North Vancouver Municipal Hall. In April 1913 she married Freeman Charles Banks, who also originated from Nova Scotia, and the couple settled in downtown Vancouver. Robert, her father lived at the Queens Road house until 1915, before moving to 653 Cambie, then to 83 Pender West. He died in 1920 at the age of 71.

A subsequent long-time owner of Bent House (from around 1922 until 1952) was Andrew Barrett Uphill Robson. Born in 1879 in London, England, Andrew attended Malvern College between 1893 and 1898, later marrying Phyllis Helen Primrose Wells in 1903. With two young children the couple migrated to Canada, initially settling in Victoria, BC. A textiles agent, Andrew was a veteran of World War 1, having enlisted in May 1917 as a private in the Canadian army. Later, he became known as a woodworker and noted ecclesiastical artist.

St. Martin's Church from Windsor Rd. Bell tower constructed in 1950. Covered entrance later moved to east [ca. 1950]. Inventory #6328. Courtesy of MONOVA: North Vancouver Archives

St. Martin's Church Rood Screen, chancel and altar before extension of building. Inventory #6370. Courtesy of MONOVA: North Vancouver Archives.

Interior view of St. Martin's Church. [ca. 1952]. Inventory #6329. Courtesy of MONOVA: North Vancouver Archives

Most of the furniture at St Martin’s, a heritage listed church situated opposite Bent House in East Windsor Road, is Andrew Barrett Uphill Robson’s work, and he is responsible for designing and crafting altars for St Thomas Anglican Church, Chilliwack, St Luke’s Church, Victoria and several churches in London, England.

If you think your house has a past, drop us a line. You never know, there may be a story waiting to be told!

References:

Robert Trueman Bent family tree:

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/pedigree/landscape/KCZT-N9S

The Confidence April 1638 passenger list:

https://immigrantships.net/1600/confidence380424.html

John Bent, WikiTree:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bent-12

Wikipedia, Massachusetts Bay Colony:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Bay_Colony#:~:text=The%20Massachusetts%20Bay%20Colony%20became,Laud%2C%20or%20the%20Anglican%20Church.

The Bent Family in America, a genealogy of the descendants of John Bent, by Allen H Bent, 1900:

https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/records/item/98736-the-bent-family-in-america-being-mainly-a-genealogy-of-the-descendants-of-john-bent-who-settled-in-sudbury-mass-in-1638-with-notes-upon-the-family-in-england-and-elsewhere?offset=15