Son of Charles Bennet, the fourth earl (d. 1822); educated at Eton, he was Whig MP for Steyning (1803-06), Knaresborough (1806-18), and Berwick-on-Tweed) (1820-22); in 1806 he married Armandine Sophie Leonie Corisande de Gramont.

CORRESPONDENCE OF Charles Augustus Bennet, fifth earl of Tankerville:

Lord Ossulston to Thomas Creevey, 31 July 1815 in The Creevey Papers: A Selection from the Correspondence & Diaries of the late Thomas Creevey, M.P. (London: John Murray, 1903)