Author: BENWELL, William
Biography:
BENWELL, William (1765-96: ODNB)
He was the second son of Henry Benwell (1722-87) and his wife Mary Ackerman (1729-66); they had married in St. Mary’s church, Reading, Berkshire, on 5 Feb. 1749. He was born in Caversham, Oxfordshire, and baptised there on 10 Apr. 1765. He was educated at Reading school where his brother-in-law Richard Valpy (q.v.) was the master. He matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford, on 7 May 1783 (BA 1787, MA 1789, Fellow 1790) and won the Chancellor’s prize for Latin poetry in 1785 and, in 1787, the prize for his English essay, “In what arts have the Moderns excelled the ancients?” He was ordained deacon in 1787 and appointed to the curacy of Sunning in Berkshire. Although he became a priest in 1790 he resigned his curacy when he was made lecturer in Greek at Trinity College in 1791. Benwell was mentored by John Loveday of Caversham and in 1788 he became secretly engaged to Loveday’s daughter, Penelope, but they did not marry until 20 June 1796 in Milton, Wiltshire. In 1794-96 he served as vicar of Hale Magna, Lincolnshire. He was appointed rector of Chilton in Suffolk on 8 Apr. 1796 but never took up the position. He and Penelope were in Milton when an epidemic of typhus broke out; Benwell caught the infection after visiting the sick and he died on 6 Sept. 1796, just eleven weeks after his wedding. He was buried on 14 Sept. in Caversham. The memorial erected by his wife comments on his modesty, charity, and compassion. (ODNB 22 Aug. 2023; ancestry.co.uk 22 Aug. 2023; CCEd 22 Aug. 2023; Alumni Oxonienses; Historical Register of the University of Oxford [1888]) SR