Bennett claimed that he had been playing the game since he was a boy, and as an adult, he was so proficient at it that he soon earned the nicknames of “the King of the Thimbles” and “the Napoleon of the Thimble-Riggers.”īennett made his living at the thimble ruse and other con games so proficiently that in the early 1840s, stringent laws were passed in several states that specifically prohibited the game. Bennett was survived by three sons (all three - Alfred b.1851, Frank b.1853 and Christopher b.1857 - joined their father and continued his newspaper business, his will providing for his eldest surviving son to be the managing proprietor, they succeeded each other in birth order) and a daughter, Rose, also a proprietor, who married John Henniker Heaton.“Dr.” Samuel Bennett, from Shreveport, Louisiana, was one of the best-known “thimble artists” to ever cruise the Mississippi River.īennett was born in New Hampshire on January 1, 1791, and grew up to work as a fur trader, merchant, and tavern keeper, before making a name for himself as a “thimble artist.” Bennett was never actually a physician, but somewhere along the line, he acquired the honorific title of “Dr.”Ī variation on the “shell game,” Bennett’s con game was played with three thimbles and a tiny paper ball. Bennett had married Eliza née Sellers of Bristol they had seven children together. Bennett was the author of The History of Australian Discovery and Colonisation, which is recognised as a standard work of reference.īennett died of tetanus at his residence, Mundarrah Towers, Little Coogee, Sydney, New South Wales, on 2 June 1878. īennett also started in 1867 The Evening News, and in 1870 The Australian Town and Country Journal, a weekly newspaper, both of which achieved phenomenal success, with circulations of 32,000 and 30,000 respectively in 1881. Hanson & Bennett conducted The Empire for several years as a daily and weekly journal, Bennett becoming sole proprietor some time before it ceased publication.

Having held this post for seventeen years, in 1859 Bennett purchased The Empire newspaper which had been started by Henry Parkes nine years previously. Stevens & Stokes of The Sydney Morning Herald to superintend the typographical department of that paper. He migrated to Australia in 1841, having been engaged by Messrs. Background īennett was born in Camborne, Cornwall, England. Samuel Bennett (28 March 1815 – 2 June 1878) was a journalist, newspaper owner and historian in colonial Australia. For other people named Samuel Bennett, see Samuel Bennett (disambiguation).

FICCIONES by Samuel Bennett