Christopher Benson

Christopher Benson (1788–1868) was an English theologian who achieved prominence on account of his abilities as a preacher and lecturer. In 1820 he was chosen as the first Hulsean Lecturer. Later he was one of the first to apply the term Tractarians to John Keble, Edward Pusey, and other pioneers of what came to be known as the Oxford Movement within the Church of England.

Life Benson was born on 16 January 1788 at Cockermouth, a country town in the far north-west of England. His father, Thomas Benson, was a solicitor. He attended Eton College before winning a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1804. Five years later he emerged with a BA degree. He received his MA degree six years after that, in 1815. A few years later he was appointed to a curacy at St Giles in the Fields in London where he would preach his farewell sermon only in September 1826. By that time, however, much of his focus had been back in Cambridge for some years.

In 1817 Christopher Benson was selected to give a series of sermons at Cambridge University, which were subsequently printed. Two years later he published "The Chronology of Our Saviour's Life". The book opens with a dedication to John Kaye, at that time the Master of Christ's College. The lectures were duly published, and were reprinted several times.

The second volume of Hulsean lectures was dedicated not to more masters of Cambridge colleges but to "Granville Hastings Wheler of ... Kent [and] ... Ledstone Hall in the County of Yorkshire". Wheler had influence in the west of Yorkshire because of an inheritance involving his kinswoman, Lady Elizabeth Hastings, and it was as a result of his intervention that in 1822 Christopher Benson became vicar of Ledsham, a post which for the time being he was able to combine with being a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge. (both parishes being near to Worcester). He was also, from 1827 till 1845 Master of the Temple, one of two responsible incumbent clergy at the Temple Church in central London. He predeceased his wife by approximately five years when he died on 25 March 1868 at Ross on Wye.