Charles Bensel (146)

Charles Bensel (11 April 1725–17 March 1795) was a physician and a member of the American Society, elected in 1768. Born in Germantown in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, he was apprenticed to a physician before starting his own medical practice. Little is known about his professional activities, but in one instance he cared for a wounded Native American under the auspices of the Overseers of the Poor. He was a subscriber to a Germantown fire company, a member of the Fishing Company at Fort St. David, and a trustee of a public school in Germantown. He was also an avid horticulturalist, raising a variety of plants. Bensel enthusiastically supported the patriot cause during the American Revolution, supervising prisoners for the Committee of Safety and collecting civilian lead for military use. He fled German town as British troops approached in 1777. In his absence, his garden was destroyed and his home thoroughly looted. Among other effects, Bensel lost two eight-day clocks; dozens of pictures and paintings; a pair of small globes; a house organ, piano, and violin; scales, mortars, and other laboratory equipment; an extensive collection of medicines; a library of 600 to 700 volumes; and two anatomical skeletons. After the war Bensel supported the Federalists. In 1787 he presided over a public meeting in which the citizens of Germantown unanimously approved the new Constitution and counselled the Pennsylvania Assembly to ratify it. (PI)