Mabel Bent

Mabel Virginia Anna Bent (née Hall-Dare, a.k.a. Mrs J. Theodore Bent) (28 January 1847 – 3 July 1929), was an Anglo-Irish explorer, excavator, writer and photographer. With her husband, J. Theodore Bent (1852–1897), she spent two decades (1877–1897) travelling, collecting and researching in remote regions of the Eastern Mediterranean, Asia Minor, Africa, and Arabia. Early life Hall-Dare was born on 28 January 1847, second daughter of Robert Westley Hall-Dare (1817–1866) and his wife Frances Anna Catherine (née Lambart) (c. 1819–1862). Her birthplace was her grandfather’s estate, Beauparc, on the River Boyne in County Meath, Ireland. Shortly after her birth the family moved to Temple House, County Sligo, before re-locating in the early 1860s to County Wexford, acquiring the property that was later to become Newtownbarry House, in Newtownbarry (now the village of Bunclody). While a teenager, Hall-Dare suffered several bereavements, losing both her parents and her two brothers. Hall-Dare and her sisters received education at home with private governesses and tutors. Married life