William Benson (abbot)

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, Hugh Latimer and Thomas Thirlby.^[1]

Life

A native of

Cambridge University, little is known of him. He took the degree of D.D. in 1528.^[2]

Two years later he appears as one of the doctors to whom the university referred the question of the validity of the marriage of

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). ^[3]

Benson assisted

25 Hen. 8. c. 22).^[3]

Hampton Court. ^[3]

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. ^[3]

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, 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.^[3]

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.[3] He made bequests to the reformers Martin Bucer and Paul Fagius.^{[citation needed]}

Sources

Diarmaid MacCulloch (1996), Thomas Cranmer

References

^ MacCulloch, Diarmaid, pp. 20, 136
^ "Benson, William (BN520W)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Rigg 1885.

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rigg, James McMullen (1885). "Benson, William (d.1549)". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 4. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 259–260. ; 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.

[1] MacCulloch, Diarmaid, pp. 20, 136

[2] "Benson, William (BN520W)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

[FOOTNOTERigg1885-3] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Rigg 1885.

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