Robert Benson (5 February 1797 – 21 June 1844) was a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

and author who served as

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

Life

He was born in Salisbury as the youngest son of the Rev. Edmund Benson, priest-vicar of

Salisbury Cathedral Salisbury Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England. The cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of Salisbury and is the seat of the Bishop of Salisbury. The buildi ...

. He was educated at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, receiving his

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in 1818 and his

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

in 1821. He became a barrister in 1821 at the bar of the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

, and practised in the courts of equity. In 1823 he went to

Corsica Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...

as one of the commissioners to carry out the bequests of former Corsican leader

Pasquale Paoli Filippo Antonio Pasquale de' Paoli (; french: link=no, Pascal Paoli; 6 April 1725 – 5 February 1807) was a Corsican patriot, statesman, and military leader who was at the forefront of resistance movements against the Genoese and later ...

. On his return Benson published a book called ''Sketches of Corsica; or a Journal written during a visit to that island in 1823, with an outline of its history and specimens of the language and poetry of the people'' (London, 1825). He was elected deputy recorder of Salisbury in 1829, and became recorder in 1836. In 1837 he published a biography of the philosopher

Arthur Collier Arthur Collier (12 October 1680September 1732) was an English Anglican priest and philosopher who wrote about the non-existence of an absolute external world. Early life Collier was born at the rectory of Steeple Langford, Wiltshire. He entered ...

, called ''Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Rev. Arthur Collier''. In 1843, a volume on the ''History of Salisbury'' was published as part of

Sir Richard Colt Hoare Sir Richard Colt Hoare, 2nd Baronet FRS (9 December 1758 – 19 May 1838) was an English antiquarian, archaeologist, artist, and traveller of the 18th and 19th centuries, the first major figure in the detailed study of the history of his home c ...

's ''History of Modern Wiltshire''. The volume carried Benson's name along with that of Henry Hatcher, another resident of Salisbury, as the authors. However, Benson wrote only a very small portion of the book, which created a controversy between him and Hatcher. Benson died unmarried at the house of his only surviving sister on 21 June 1844, and was buried in Salisbury Cathedral with the other members of his family.

References

;Attribution

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benson, Robert 1797 births 1844 deaths 19th-century English writers 19th-century English judges People from Salisbury Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge