Sir Benjamin Charles Stephenson, GCH (1766 – 10 June 1839)"Obituary, Major-Gen. Sir B. C. Stephenson", ''The Gentleman's Magazine'', Volume 12, July – December 1839, p. 317. was a prominent British

courtier A courtier () is a person who attends the royal court of a monarch or other royalty. The earliest historical examples of courtiers were part of the retinues of rulers. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the official r ...

and government official in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. After military service, he served kings

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

, and

William IV William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded h ...

. He was, from 1813 to 1832, Surveyor-General (head of the

Office of Works The Office of Works was established in the England, English Royal Household, royal household in 1378 to oversee the building and maintenance of the royal castles and residences. In 1832 it became the Works Department forces within the Office of W ...

Career

Stephenson joined the army, serving in the 9th Regiment of Light Dragoons and the

3rd Dragoon Guards The 3rd (Prince of Wales's) Dragoon Guards was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1685 as the Earl of Plymouth's Regiment of Horse. It was renamed as the 3rd Regiment of Dragoon Guards in 1751 and the 3rd (Prince of Wales's) ...

. He saw action at the

Battle of Famars The Battle of Famars was fought on 23 May 1793 during the Flanders Campaign of the War of the First Coalition. An Allied Austrian, Hanoverian, and British army under Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld defeated the French Army of the North le ...

and the Siege of Valenciennes in 1793, and in later skirmishes was seriously wounded. In 1803, he was appointed Deputy Judge Advocate of the South West District, and later served on a commission on military expenditure. In 1812 he was appointed Master of the King's Household at Windsor, and in 1823 was appointed to superintend the finances of

Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany (Frederick Augustus; 16 August 1763 – 5 January 1827) was the second son of George III, King of the United Kingdom and Hanover, and his consort Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. A soldier by profess ...

. Stephenson succeeded Sir

James Wyatt James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806. Early life W ...

as Surveyor-General of the Board of Works in 1813. As Surveyor-General, in 1829, he commissioned Sir

John Soane Sir John Soane (; né Soan; 10 September 1753 – 20 January 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neoclassical architecture, Neo-Classical style. The son of a bricklayer, he rose to the top of his profession, becoming professo ...

to design the New State Paper Office in Duke Street, east of London's St James's Park, as a purpose-built repository for national records in England (superseded in 1856 by Sir

James Pennethorne Sir James Pennethorne (4 June 1801 – 1 September 1871) was a British architect and planner, particularly associated with buildings and parks in central London. Life Early years Pennethorne was born in Worcester, and travelled to London in 1 ...

Public Record Office The Public Record Office (abbreviated as PRO, pronounced as three letters and referred to as ''the'' PRO), Chancery Lane in the City of London, was the guardian of the national archives of the United Kingdom from 1838 until 2003, when it was m ...

Chancery Lane Chancery Lane is a one-way street situated in the ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. It has formed the western boundary of the City since 1994, having previously been divided between the City of Westminster and the London Boroug ...

, and demolished in 1862). When the Board merged with the Department of Woods and Forests in 1832, Stephenson was appointed a

Commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to in ...

in that department. Promoted a Knight Commander of the Guelphic Order of Hanover in 1830 and Knight Grand Cross in 1834, he died at his London home in Bolton Row,

Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earl's Court, ...

on 10 June 1839 and was buried in the family vault in

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

churchyard on 15 June.

Family

He married Marie Rivers in 1805, and they had six daughters and two sons: William Henry (18 November 1811-1 March 1898) who became chairman of the Board of the

Inland Revenue The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation ta ...

(1862-1877) and was private secretary to British

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Sir

Robert Peel Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, (5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850) was a British Conservative statesman who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835 and 1841–1846) simultaneously serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer ...

(1841-1846), and Frederick Charles Arthur (1821-1911) who became a prominent British Army officer. William Henry's son, also named Benjamin Charles Stephenson was a prominent English dramatist, lyricist and librettist."Obituary, Mr. B. C. Stephenson", ''The Times'', 24 January 1906, p. 5

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephenson, Benjamin C. 1766 births 1839 deaths English courtiers