The Right Honourable
The Lord Bingley
PC
Portrait attributed to Godfrey Kneller
Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office
1711–1713
Preceded byThe Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer
Succeeded bySir William Wyndham
Personal details
Bornc 1676
Died(1731-04-09)9 April 1731
NationalityEnglish
Alma materChrist's College, Cambridge
Occupationpolitician

Robert Benson, 1st Baron Bingley, PC (c. 1676 – 9 April 1731) was an English Tory politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons from 1702 until 1713 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Bingley and sat in the House of Lords. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1711 to 1713.

Life

Robert Benson was born in Wakefield, the son of Robert Benson of Wrenthorpe. He went to school in London before studying at Christ's College, Cambridge.[1] He served as an alderman of the city of York and was elected Lord Mayor of York for 1707.[2] He was elected Member of Parliament for Thetford in Norfolk from 1702 to 1705, then becoming MP for York from 1705 to 1713.[3]

In 1711, he was sworn of the Privy Council and became Chancellor of the Exchequer until 1713. He was a Director of the South Sea Company from July 1711 to February 1715.[3] In 1713 he was ennobled as Baron Bingley, and became the British ambassador to Spain.

Benson founded the stately home of Bramham Park, near Wetherby. When he died in 1731 he was buried in Westminster Abbey and the title Baron Bingley became extinct, although it was later re-created for his son-in-law. He had married Elizabeth, the daughter of Heneage Finch, and had a son (who predeceased him) and two daughters (one illegitimate). It has often been suggested that Bingley was also the real father of the British soldier, dramatist and politician John Burgoyne, whose debts he cancelled in his will. What was left of his estate, including Bramham Park, went to his daughter Harriet who had married George Fox.[3]

Notes

  1. ↑ "Benson, Robert (BN691R)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. ↑ Drake, Francis (1736). Eboracum: or, The history and antiquities of the city of York.
  3. 1 2 3 "BENSON, Robert (1676–1731), of Red Hall, nr. Wakefield; Bramham Hall, Yorks.; and Queen Street, Westminster". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 28 November 2013.

References

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