In 1805, Bennock was issued what is believed to be the very first American patent for a wood planing machine; on the very same day, John Hinman was granted a patent for a "planing machine for sawing bellows boards". The patent drawings and specifications were lost in the 1836 fire at the Patent Office in Washington, and, like most expired patents, Bennock's and Hinman's were never restored and so we have no information on the patent other than the inventor's name, city, patent title, and patent date.

Bennock spent much of his career as a merchant. At the time his patent was issued, he is known to have been residing in Charlestown but we do not know anything more. Shortly afterwards he moved to Orono, Maine, where he was a merchant and lumber manufacturer.

Information Sources

• 1798—The Boston Registry Department put together Records relating to the early history of Boston, which includes a list of property ownership in 1798. The wooden dwelling "east on Marlboro' Street; West and North on Mrs. Cole" was occupied by John Bennock & Co. His biography (below) indicates that this business was a seller of earthenware.
• 1801—John Bennock of Liverpool, England, was granted a UK patent on 1801-02-17 for a "method or machine for making nails, bolts, rods, watch-springs, clock-springs, and metal-plates." This is almost certainly the same John Bennock, as the biography quoted below placed him in Liverpool at the time the patent was issued, and then in the Boston area at the time the 1805 planer patent was issued.
• The American Polytechnic Journal for January 1853 has an article, "On the Working of Wood", which contains the following passage.

  Several machines have been essayed since Bentham's with stationary cutters, particularly in this country; as early as 1805, there were two, one by John Bennock, and the other by John Hinman. We are not aware that the description of either of these is now extant From that time up to 1813 five other patents were granted for planing machines, besides another in the latter year for making scaleboards, as well as planing, a purpose to which Bentham proposed to put his machines, as appears from his patent of 1793, in which he speaks of cutting steamed timber.

• 1831—The 1831-11-23 New England Farmer carries a letter to the editor from John Bennock of Orono, who had sent them a barrel of different varieties of potatoes, selected from 167 varieties to which he had access.
• 1888—Bangor Historical Magazine for June 1888 has the following biography, which was largely based on Bennock's unpublished autobiography that he wrote between 1828 and 1838. Unfortunately, it glosses over his activities at the time he was granted the patent, except to note that he was in Charlestown.

  JOHN BENNOCK AND FAMILY, OF ORONO, MAINE.

  John Bennock was born in the Parish of Durrisdeer, in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, Nov. 24th, 1769. His father, Archibald Bennock, was a merchant. He died 1780. The widow and son John continued the business without success. In 1793, John concluded to try his fortune in America. He sailed from Liverpool in the ship Commerce, John Savage, master, belonging to Wiscasset. After a passage of 42 days, he arrived at Boothbay, Maine, now Townsend, July 7th. On the 14th of July, he arrived in Boston. There he found on the wharf Deacon Monroe, who lived in Roxbury, and who wished to hire him to work on a farm at Monotomy, now called West Cambridge. He tried this two months, and then went to Boston, where he engaged himself to Saxon & Wainwright, crockery dealers, at No. Two Market Square. Saxon had been a doctor on board a British Man of war in the Revolution, and was made prisoner by the Americans and afterwards joined them. Bennock went to the house of Mr. Ebenezer Swan, on Middle Street. In about a year and a half from this time he entered into partnership with James Harrison, an importer of earthernware, and they took the store No. 9 Marlborough Street. On the 18th of July, 1795, he married Rebecca, the daughter of the man he boarded with, Ebenezer Swan. In 1798, he went into partnership with Samuel Bedford, in the same business, and Nov. 16 of that year he and his wife sailed for Liverpool for the purpose of selecting goods. They arrived at Liverpool, Jan. 8, 1799. In June he went to Scotland to visit his mother and sisters, whom he found well. He continued to reside in Liverpool till May, 1804. His partner in Boston having neglected the business, it was almost ruined. He arrived in Boston after a passage of 36 days, in June, 1804. His partner, Mr. Bedford, having become a lover of brandy, Mr. Bennock concluded that it was best to sell out and settle up, which was done as soon as possible, and turned over all they had to their creditors, who gave them an honorable discharge.

  He moved to Charlestown, where he lived about August, 1806, when he moved with his family to Orono. "When I came to Orono I went into a very small house on the southerly end of Marsh Island, where Mr. Harrison (his former partner) and I bought 84 acres of land with a double saw mill on the point of the island, on the Stillwater branch of the Penobscot River. There were then but a very few houses in Orono, and indeed not more than ten on both sides of the Kenduskeag stream, where the City of Bangor now is, built, and the roads were so bad that it was difficult to go from Bangor to Orono even on horseback." At Orono, Mr. Bennock was a merchant and lumber manufacturer; but the war of 1812, proved too much for his business, he losing many thousands of dollars in bad debts, occasioned by the hard times. He was for many years Treasurer and Selectman of the town, Representative to the Legislature for the year 1828, President of the Orono Temperance Society for several years, and Postmaster. Ex-Gov. Washburn says: "Mr. Bennock was a prominent and leading citizen, active in every good work whether it looked to the outward growth and progress of the village, to its educational facilities, or to its moral improvement." Mr. Bennock died January 7, 1842.

• Undated—The EAIA Directory of American Toolmakers references a secondary source that could be a report of a machine, or it could be a reference to the patent.