He was son of Henry Kaye Bonney, rector of King"s Cliffe and prebendary of Lincoln, and was born 22 May 1780 at Tansor, Northamptonshire, of which parish his father was at that time rector. Bonney"s brother Thomas was also a priest (later Archdeacon of Leicester) His father"s family friend, John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland, procured for him a foundation scholarship at Charterhouse School, where he obtained an exhibition, and went to Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
Having been elected to one of the Tancred divinity studentships, he migrated to Christ"s College. He became Bachelor of Arts in 1802, Master of Arts 1805, Doctor of Divinity 1824. He was ordained deacon in 1803 and priest in 1804, with a charge at Thurlby, in Lincolnshire.
He was collated by Bishop George Pretyman Tomline, 8 January 1807, to the prebend of Nassington in Lincoln Cathedral.
Bonney was presented by the Earl of Westmorland to the rectory of King"s Cliffe, in succession to his father, who died of paralysis 20 March 1810. In 1820 he was appointed examining chaplain to George Pelham, the new bishop of Lincoln.
And was collated by Pelham, 10 December 1821, to the archdeaconry of Bedford. An order in council, 19 April 1837, transferred it from the diocese of Lincoln to the diocese of Ely.
As an archdeacon Bonney was indefatigable.
In the early part of 1858 he was seized with paralysis, and never entirely recovered. He died at the rectory-house, King"s Cliffe, 24 December 1862, and was buried in his wife"s grave in the churchyard of Cliffe, where he had contributed to the restoration of the church.
