William Benson (died 1549) was an English
Benedictine, the last
Abbot of Westminster and first
Dean of Westminster. He was a friend of
Thomas Cranmer, and belonged to the evangelical circle around Cranmer that included
Thomas Goodrich
Sir Thomas Goodrich (also spelled Goodricke; died 10 May 1554) was an English ecclesiastic and statesman who was Bishop of Ely from 1534 until his death.
Life
He was a son of Edward Goodrich of East Kirkby, Lincolnshire and brother of Henry ...
,
Hugh Latimer and
Thomas Thirlby
Thomas Thirlby (or Thirleby; –1570), was the first and only bishop of Westminster (1540–50), and afterwards successively bishop of Norwich (1550–54) and bishop of Ely (1554–59). While he acquiesced in the Henrician schism, with its reje ...
.
Life
A native of
Boston, Lincolnshire, Benson was apparently educated in some religious house belonging to the Benedictine order, of which he was a member. He took, according to custom in the order, the name of the town where he was born (i.e. Boston). He resumed the name Benson in later life. Until 1521, when he graduated B.D. at
Cambridge University, little is known of him. He took the degree of D.D. in 1528.
Two years later he appears as one of the doctors to whom the university referred the question of the validity of the marriage of
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
with
Catharine of Aragon, when its opinion on the matter was sought by the king, and voted with the majority against the marriage. In the following year (27 March 1531) he was elected abbot of the Benedictine
Burton Abbey,
Burton-on-Trent. About 1532–3 he resigned this office to be elected abbot of Westminster, although not a previous member of the chapter, as every abbot had been since William Humez, who died in 1222. It is probable that a sum of 661l. 13s. 4d., which Cromwell received from him about the same time, was a part of the price of the preferment, and the 500l., to secure which three of the best manors belonging to the abbey were assigned to Cromwell and Paulet shortly after his election, may have been the balance (cf. Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, vi. 578, No. 25).
Benson assisted
John Stokesley
John Stokesley (8 September 1475 – 8 September 1539) was an English clergyman who was Bishop of London during the reign of Henry VIII.
Life
Stokesley was born at Collyweston in Northamptonshire, and became a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford ...
, the
Bishop of London at the christening of the
Lady Elizabeth, which took place in September 1533 in the Church of the Friars Minors of the Order of St. Francis at Greenwich. In the following year he was appointed, jointly with
Thomas Cranmer,
Thomas Audley, and Cromwell, to administer the oath to accept, on pain of
high treason, the statute defining the succession to the crown, in the preamble of which the marriage of Queen Catharine was declared void (25 Henry VIII, cap. 22).
Sir Thomas More
Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VIII as Lord ...
finding himself unable to take the oath without at the same time distinguishing between the preamble and the operative part of the act, Benson endeavoured to induce him to ‘change his conscience’. More, however, refused to take the oath, was placed under arrest on Monday, 13 April 1534, Benson having the custody of him until the following Friday, when he was committed to the
Tower of London. The same year (1534) Benson defended the privilege of
sanctuary claimed by the collegiate church of
St. Martin's-le-Grand
St. Martin's Le Grand is a former liberty within the City of London, and is the name of a street north of Newgate Street and Cheapside and south of Aldersgate Street. It forms the southernmost section of the A1 road.
College of canons and coll ...
, which had been annexed to the abbey by
Henry VII, against the corporation of London, trying to suppress what was felt to be an intolerable nuisance. They failed, however, on this as on previous occasions, and Benson had a document drawn up and enrolled in the
Court of Chancery accurately defining the extent of the privilege. He subscribed the articles of religion formulated in 1536, the year in which he surrendered to the king the manors of Neyte (whence
Knightsbridge), Hyde, now
Hyde Park
Hyde Park may refer to:
Places
England
* Hyde Park, London, a Royal Park in Central London
* Hyde Park, Leeds, an inner-city area of north-west Leeds
* Hyde Park, Sheffield, district of Sheffield
* Hyde Park, in Hyde, Greater Manchester
Austra ...
, Eybury, and
Todington, the
advowson of
Chelsea, some meadows near the horse-ferry between Westminster and
Lambeth
Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth, historically in the County of Surrey. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area expe ...
,
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...
, and some lands at
Greenwich, in exchange for
Hurley Priory
Hurley Priory is a former Benedictine priory in the village of Hurley. Founded in 1086, the remains are located on the banks of the River Thames in the English county of Berkshire.
History
The Priory of St. Mary at Hurley was founded in 1086 ...
in
Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...
. On 15 October 1537 he was present at the christening of the
Prince of Wales at
Hampton Court.
In 1539, he was summoned to the parliament which passed the law of the
Six Articles. Early next year (16 January) he surrendered his monastery to the king, and on the establishment of the cathedral was made its dean. In this year he signed the document by which Henry's marriage with
Anne of Cleves was nullified.
He was present at convocation in 1547, when the right of the clergy to marry was discussed, and declared himself in favour of the lawfulness of matrimony. He does not, however, seem to have been married himself. In an undated letter to Cromwell, written before 1540, he begs to be relieved of his office, describing himself as feeble. He remained there, however, for many years afterwards, during which the abbey became impoverished, owing to the depreciation of money and the rapacious greed of the
Protector Somerset
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (150022 January 1552) (also 1st Earl of Hertford, 1st Viscount Beauchamp), also known as Edward Semel, was the eldest surviving brother of Queen Jane Seymour (d. 1537), the third wife of King Henry VI ...
, who in 1549 secularised its appanage of St. Martin's-le-Grand, and extorted the surrender of fourteen of its manors under threat to demolish the entire structure.
Benson's death the same year purportedly was hastened over his distress.
He was buried in the abbey in the chapel of St. Blaize, but the inscription on his tomb has been obliterated.
He made bequests to the reformers
Martin Bucer
Martin Bucer ( early German: ''Martin Butzer''; 11 November 1491 – 28 February 1551) was a German Protestant reformer based in Strasbourg who influenced Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anglican doctrines and practices. Bucer was originally a me ...
and
Paul Fagius.
Sources
* Diarmaid MacCulloch (1996), ''Thomas Cranmer''
References
;Attribution
; Endnotes:
*Widmore's ''Hist. West. Abb.'' 126
* Neale and Brayley's ''Hist. West. Abb.'' i. 103
* Strype's ''Cranmer'', bk. i. cap. vi.
* Strype's ''Mem.'' (fol.) ii. pt. i. 4
* Strype's ''Ann.'' ii. pt. ii., App. bk. i. No. xxxvii.
* Burnet's ''Reform.'' (Pocock), I. 256, 410, II. 175, i. 286, 503
* State Papers Henry VIII, i. 635
* Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, v. g. 166 (53), g. 278 (25), vi. 228, i. 472, 661, g. 417 (20) (21), g. 578 (25), g. 1111 (4)
* Sir Thomas More's Works (fol. London, 1537), 1430
* Ellis's Letters, 3rd ser. iii. 273
* Rymer's Fœdera (2nd ed.), xiv. 459
* Dugdale's Monast. (ed. Caley), i. 280
* Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy), iii. 346
* Kempe's St. Martin's-le-Grand, 163, 200
* Rep. Dep. Keep. Pub. Rec., App. ii. 48
* Dart's ''West''. i. 66
* Cooper's ''Athenæ Cantab.'' i. 537.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benson, William
Year of birth unknown
Place of death unknown
People from Boston, Lincolnshire
1549 deaths
Benedictine abbots
Deans of Westminster
16th-century English Anglican priests
Converts to Anglicanism from Roman Catholicism
People associated with the Dissolution of the Monasteries