Founder of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, popularly known as the Cowley Fathers.
In addition to the information shown on his , Richard Meux Benson was born on 6 July 1824 in Bolton House, Russell Square, Bloomsbury, London, a son of Thomas Starling Benson (1775-1858) and Elizabeth Benson née Meux (1793-1858). gives "son of Thomas Benson, the high sheriff of Surrey, and Elizabeth (née Meux) of the wealthy Meux brewing family". On 6 August 1824 he was baptised in St George's Church, Bloomsbury, where the baptismal register shows his family were living in Russell Square and that his father was a merchant.
On 9 June 1843 he attended Christ Church College at Oxford University where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1847 and his Master of Arts (MA) in 1850. On 23 July 1845 he applied to be admitted into the Freedom of the City of London by patrimony in the Worshipful Company of Drapers. He was the Curate of St Mark's Church, Surbiton, Surrey, from 1848 to 1851 and in the 1851 census he was described as the Perpetual Curate of Cowley, residing in Cowley, Oxford, Oxfordshire. On 5 March 1856 he was due to stand trial at Oxford Assizes for the offence of solemnising matrimony without publication of Banns or Licence, however the petitioner removed their petition.
When the 1861 census was undertaken he was shown as the Incumbent of Cowley, boarding jointly with James Percy Kane (1833-1919) the Curate of Cowley, at Henley Terrace, Iffley Road, Cowley, Oxford, the home of a Martha Hogg who was a lodging house keeper. He was still shown as residing in Iffley Road, Cowley, in the 1868 electoral registers.
In the 1881 census he is described as the Vicar of Cowley St. John, and was living at The Mission House, 16 Marston Street, Cowley, where he is shown as the head of the property in which there were 20 other clergymen who were listed as boarders.
He was shown as a Priest (Church of England) in the 1901 census visiting the home of the Reverend Hanworth Hart Rackham (1860-1916) at St Paul's Vicarage, Edgware Road, Swindon, Wiltshire.
He died, aged 90 years, on 14 January 1915 in the Mission House, Marston Road, Cowley, his death being registered in the 1st quarter of 1915 in the Headington registration district, Oxfordshire and his body was in the churchyard of St Mary and St John Church, Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1UH.
He is commemorated as Richard Benson on the plaque at St George's, Bloomsbury.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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