EDWARD

See also:

• WHITE
• WHITE, ANDREW DICKSON (1832– )
• WHITE, GILBERT (1720–1793)
• WHITE, HENRY KIRKE (1785-1806)
• WHITE, HUGH LAWSON (1773-1840)
• WHITE, JOSEPH BLANCO (1775-1841)
• WHITE, RICHARD GRANT (1822-1885)
• WHITE, ROBERT (1645-1704)
• WHITE, SIR GEORGE STUART (1835– )
• WHITE, SIR THOMAS (1492-1567)
• WHITE, SIR WILLIAM ARTHUR (1824--1891)
• WHITE, SIR WILLIAM HENRY (1845– )
• WHITE, THOMAS (1628-1698)
• WHITE, THOMAS (c. 1550-1624)

WHITE

See also:

• EDWARD WHITE BENSON (182g—1896)
• BENSON, FRANCIS ROBERT (1858— )
• BENSON, FRANK WESTON (1862— )
• BENSON, GEORGE (1699–1762)

BENSON (182g—1896)  , archbishop of Canterbury, was born on the 14th of July 1829, at Birmingham . He came of a family of Yorkshire dalesmen, his father, whose name was also Edward White Benson, being a manufacturing chemist of some note . He was educated at King Edward VI.'s school, Birmingham, under James Prince Lee, afterwards bishop of Manchester, and amongst his school-fellows were B.F . Westcott and J . B . Lightfoot, both of whom preceded him to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was elected a sub-sizar in 1848, becoming subsequently sizar and scholar . The death of his widowed mother in 185o left him almost without resources, with a family of younger brothers and sisters dependent upon him . Relations came to his aid, and presently his anxieties were relieved by Francis Martin, bursar of Trinity, who gave him liberal help . Benson took his degree in 1852 as a senior optime, eighth classic and senior chancellor's medallist, and was elected fellow of Trinity in the following year . He became a master at Rugby, first under E . M . Goulburn, and then (1857) under Frederick Temple, who became his lifelong friend; he was also ordained deacon in 1854 and priest in 1856 .

From Rugby he went to be first headmaster of

Wellington College, which was opened in January 1859; and in the course of the same year he married his cousin, Mary Sidgwick . The school flourished under his management and also developed his administrative abilities, but gradually his thoughts began to turn towards other work . In 1868 he became prebendary of Lincoln and examining chaplain to Bishop Christopher Wordsworth, an office which he also held for a short time in 187o for Dr Temple, just appointed to the see of Exeter . In 1872 his acceptance of the chancellorship of Lincoln opened a new period of his life . As chancellor, the statutes directed him to study theology, to train others in that study and to oversee the educational work of the diocese . To such work Benson at once devoted himself; and did more perhaps than any other man to reinvigorate cathedral life in England . He started a theological college (the Scholae Cancellarii), founded night schools, delivered courses of lectures on church history, held Bible classes, and was instrumental in founding a society of mission preachers for the diocese, the " Novale Novale." Early in 1877 he was consecrated first bishop of Truro, and threw himself with characteristic vigour into the work of organizing the new diocese . His knowledge, his sympathy, his enthusiasm soon made themselves felt everywhere; the ruridecanal conferences of clergy became a real force, and the church in Cornwall was inspired with a vitality that had never been possible when it was part of the unwieldy diocese of Exeter . A chapter was constituted, the bishop being dean; amongst its members was a canon missioner (the first to be appointed in England), and the Scholae Cancellarii were founded after the Lincoln pattern . Moreover, the bishop at once set to work to build a cathedral . The foundation-stone was laid on the 2oth of May 188o, and on the 3rd of November 1887 the building, so far as then completed, was consecrated . On the death of Dr Tait, Benson was nominated to the see of Canterbury and was enthroned on the 29th of March 1883 .

His primacy was one of almost unprecedented activity . Frequent communications passed between him and the heads of the Eastern Churches . With their approval a bishop was again consecrated, after six years'

interval (1881—1887), for the Anglican congregations in Jerusalem and the East; and the features which had made the plan objectionable to many English churchmen were now abolished . In 1886, after much careful investigation, he founded the " Archbishop's Mission to the Assyrian Christians," having for its object the instruction and the strengthening from within of the " Nestorian " churches of the East (see NESTORIANS) . An interchange of courtesies with the Metropolitan of Kiev on the occasion of the Booth anniversary of the conversion of Russia (1888), led to further intercourse, which has tended to a friendlier feeling between the English and Russian churches . On the other hand, with the efforts towards a rapprochement with the Church of Rome, to which the visit of the French Abbe Portal in 1894 gave some stimulus, the archbishop would have nothing to do . With the other churches of the Anglican Communion the archbishop's relations were cordial in the extreme and grew loser as time went on . Particular questions of importance, the (1906), Beside Still Waters (1907) . He also collaborated with Lord Esher in editing the Correspondence of Queen Victoria (1907) . The third son, EDWARD FREDERICK BENSON (b . 1867), was educated at Marlborough College and King's College, Cambridge . He worked at Athens for the British Archaeological Society from 1892 to 1895, and subsequently in Egypt for the Hellenic Society .

In 1893 his society novel,

Dodo, brought him to the front among the writers of clever fiction; and this was followed by other novels, notably The Vintage (1898) and The Capsina (1899) . The fourth son, ROBERT HUGH BENSON (b . 1871), was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge . After reading with Dean Vaughan at Llandaff he took orders, and in 1898 became a member of the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield . In 1903 he became a Roman Catholic, was ordained priest at Rome in the following year, and returned to Cambridge as assistant priest of the Roman Catholic church there . Among his numerous publications are The Light Invisible, By What Authority?, The King's Achievement, Richard Raynal, Solitary, The Queen's Tragedy, The Sentimentalists, Lord of the World . See A . C . Benson, Life of Archbishop Benson (2 vols., London, 1899); J . H . Bernard, Archbishop Benson in Ireland (1897); Sir L . T .

Dibdin in The Quarterly Review, October 1897 .