At first the young Bennett tried his hand at the violin, but he quickly turned to the piano on which he began to excel, and by 1828, when he was only twelve, he was already appearing as a soloist at the RAM in a piano concerto by Dussek. His musicality was soon recognized and, after joining the choir of King’s in February 1824, William entered the Royal Academy of Music at the age of ten on the recommendation of the Provost of King’s, George Thackeray, who considered him a prodigy. After the premature deaths of his mother in 1818, and his father (who had married again) in 1819, William went to live with his grandparents in Cambridge where his grandfather was still active as a lay clerk. Accepting a post at Sheffield Parish Church in 1811, Robert fathered three children among which was one son, William Sterndale, born in 1816 and named after a close friend who had provided words for some of his solo songs.
His grandfather, John Bennett (1754-1837), was a lay vicar at King’s, Trinity and St John’s Colleges in Cambridge (when the lay clerks and organist served all three colleges), and his son Robert (1788-1819), William’s father, entered the choir at King’s as a chorister before becoming an articled pupil of the organist, John Clarke-Whitfield. William Sterndale Bennett (1816-1875) enjoyed the advantage of a musical family.