BENSON, Sir JOHN (1812–1874), architect and engineer, was the only son of John Benson, of Collooney, in the county of Sligo. Having chosen the profession of architect, he at an early age gave proof of his ability in the restoration of Markree Castle, the seat of Mr. E. J. Cooper. In 1846 he was appointed county surveyor for the East Riding of Cork, in which capacity he carried out most satisfactorily the difficult task of superintending the relief works during the famine of 1847. In 1850 he was appointed engineer to the Cork harbour commissioners, and he was also architect to the Cork corporation. St. Patrick's bridge, the waterworks, and several piers and quays were constructed by him, besides churches and other public buildings in the city of Cork. But the work with which his name is most widely associated was the Great Industrial Exhibition building in Dublin, at the opening of which, in May 1853, he received the honour of knighthood from the lord-lieutenant of Ireland. Sir John was a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers. His death, which occurred on 17 Oct. 1874, was accelerated by overwork. His genial character made him as much beloved by his friends as his ability made him respected by the public. Sir John married, in 1849, Mary Clementina Pyne, daughter of John Smith, of the 56th regiment. There was no issue of the marriage.
[Times, 21 Oct. 1874; Illustrated London News, 31 Oct. 1874; Annual Register for 1874; Sproule's Irish Industrial Exhibition of 1853.]
BENSON, JOSEPH (1749–1821), divine, was the son of John Benson, by Isabella Robinson, his wife. He was born on 26 Jan. 1748–9, in the parish of Kirkoswald, Cumberland. His father intended him for the ministry of the established church. His elementary education was obtained in the village school. Afterwards he was placed under a Mr. Dean, a presbyterian minister residing in the parish, with whom he lived on terms of intimacy for many subsequent years. He was well grounded in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and had access to his tutor's considerable library. A cousin, Joseph Watson, who had heard the early methodists, happening to visit Joseph, excited his curiosity in the new sect. The two went together to the methodist conventicle and also read Wesley's sermons, and the new movement at once affected Benson.
Till his sixteenth year he remained under Mr. Dean. He then opened a small school in a Cumberland village. His father opposed his joining the methodists. However, Joseph, having learned that John Wesley himself was to preach at Newcastle-on-Tyne, set out on foot to hear him in December 1765. He arrived too late, but resolved to follow Wesley to London. Arrived in the metropolis after a journey partly performed on foot and partly in a mail-coach, for which a kindly traveller paid the fare, Benson gained an introduction to John Wesley, who, going to Bristol, took his disciple with him (11 March 1766). He speedily showed his estimate of him by appointing him classical master of Kingswood school, in which the sons of itinerant preachers were the chief scholars. Wesley afterwards bore flattering testimony to his success at Kingswood. Though naturally slow of speech, he addressed the colliers of Kingswood, and held cottage-meeting, prayer-meetings, and the like. But he did not separate himself from the church. He proceeded to Oxford in 1769, and was entered of St. Edmund Hall. In the same year he lost his father. At Kingswood he had been introduced to Fletcher of Madeley, who had brought his name under the notice of the Countess of Huntingdon. As a result that lady summoned him in 1770 to take the post of head-master in her recently established college at Treveca. The countess was Calvinistic, while Fletcher and Benson were Arminian. Dissensions and resignations ensued. The countess granted a laudatory testimonial to Benson. His success as an itinerant preacher made him anxious to become a clergyman, for he still leaned to the church of England. He returned to Oxford, and speedily obtained a presentation to Rowley, a large parish four miles distant from West Bromwich. He applied for ordination, bringing with him a testimonial from the bishop of St. Davids, but the bishop of Worcester refused to ordain him. He alleged the absence of an academic degree as excuse, but the real reason was his intimacy with the methodists.
Thereupon Benson went over to methodism, and he exercised his ministry in successive circuits. He was found wherever work, religious or philanthropic (as for the slaves of the West Indies and America), was to be done, whether in the north of England, or
