Bennet was born on July 23, 1826 on a plantation in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, United States, the youngest son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Marshall) Puryear. His great-grandmother was a first cousin of Thomas Jefferson, and his mother a cousin of Chief-Justice John Marshall.
Prepared for college by a neighborhood tutor, Bennet Puryearwas graduated Bachelor of arts at Randolph-Macon College (then at Boydton, Virginia), in 1847, and received the degree of Master of arts three years later. In his time the college had about sixty students. He spent the session of 1848-49 at the University of Virginia, studying medicine, though balancing in his mind various careers.
In 1849 Puryear went to Richmond College as tutor in chemistry, and was made professor in 1850. In 1858 he returned to Randolph-Macon College as professor of chemistry, where he remained until February 1863, when the Civil War put an end for a time to academic life.
When Richmond College reopened after the Civil War, Puryear was called back to his former chair of chemistry, which he held until his retirement in 1895. During most of this time he was also chairman of the faculty, the chief academic officer of the college.
As a writer he wrote for the Religious Herald, Richmond Dispatch, and New York Times forceful articles, generally signed "Civis, " dealing with the educational, racial, and political problems growing out of the Reconstruction era in Virginia.
After his retirement he made his home at "Edgewood, " Madison County, Virginia, until his death in 1914.
Quotations: "The political principles which are invoked in the support of the public school are foreign to free institutions and fatal to liberty; the theory upon which the system is based is well calculated to emasculate the energies of a people, and to debauch public and private morality; the education of children is not the business of government, but the sacred and imperative duty of parents. "
Puryear had strong personality, gift for teaching, and administrative ability. He had also great taste for literature. In personal appearance Puryear was tall and striking.
His first wife was Virginia Catherine Ragland, of Richmond; his second, Ella Marian Wyles, of Mecklenburg County. His second wife survived him, with their six children and five children of his first marriage.
