He was the son of Christopher Bendlowes of
Great Bardfield, in Essex, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Ufford. He was educated for a time at
St. John's College, Cambridge; but leaving the university without a degree, he became a member of
Lincoln's Inn, and was
called to the bar. In 1548 he was
autumn reader of his inn, but did not lecture on account of the pestilence. He was again autumn reader in 1549. He successively represented the Cornish boroughs of
Helston,
Penrhyn, and
Dunheved in the Parliaments which met in the years 1553 to 1554. In 1555 he was double autumn reader at Lincoln's Inn, and was soon afterwards called to the degree of serjeant-at-law, he and the other serjeants included in the same call making their feast in the
Inner Temple Hall on 16 October 1555. In the following year he was in a commission for the suppression of
Lollards and heretics in Essex. His patrimony in that county was not inconsiderable, and he appears to have greatly increased it. During the latter part of
Queen Mary's reign, and the earlier part of
Elizabeth's, Bendlowes was the only practising serjeant. He is said to have always adhered steadily to the
Roman Catholic faith. In 1576 he became one of the governors of Lincoln's Inn, and he served the office in several succeeding years. The recorder Fleetwood, in a letter to
Lord Burghley, relates that on the occasion of the investiture of
Sir Edmund Anderson as
Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, in May 1582, the
Lord Chancellor (Hatton) "made a short discourse, what the dewtie and office of a good justice was"; and that after the Chief Justice was sworn, "Father Benloos, because he was auncient, did put a short case, and then myself put the next". Bendlowes died on 19 November 1584 and was buried at Great Bardfield. In the combination room of St. John's College, Cambridge, there is a half-length portrait of Serjeant Bendlowes, "solus ad legem serviens, aet. suae 49, et sui gradus an. anno, 1564". ==Works==