Gervase Benson (abt. 1610 - bef. 1679)

Born about 1610 in Yorkshire, England [uncertain]

Husband of Mabel (Unknown) Benson — married 8 Apr 1660 in Preston, Westmorland, England

Died before 5 May 1679 before about age 69 in Kendal, Westmorland, England

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Biography

Gervase was a Friend (Quaker)

Gervase Benson was a member of the early Quaker leaders and preachers known as the Valiant Sixty. It has been observed by a number of historians that the prominence of George Fox in early Quaker history has perhaps undervalued the contributions of Gervase Benson, an ecclesiastical lawyer with well-honed political skills.

The date and place of Gervase's birth are currently unknown. He had two homes in Yorkshire (Sedbergh and Borratt) and one in Kendal, Westmorland where he is first recorded as a notary public before 1640, elected to the Kendal corporation December 1640 and became an alderman in April 1641.^[1][2] His first wife was named Dorothy (d 1656) but it is uncertain if the 1634 marriage of a yeoman Gervase Benson and Dorothy Lawson (Dawson) at Addingham, Yorkshire is them however the University of Lancaster Quaker research center lists this as a possibility.^[3][4] It is certain he married Dorothy before 1645 (the last of eight children named in his will born 1653) which coupled with his election to the Kendal corporation in 1640 places his birth say about 1610, perhaps earlier.

In March 1644 in the civil war, Benson tried to commit Kendal to parliament but it was the Scottish invasion in September that brought Kendal under parliamentarian control. At Michaelmas 1644, Benson was elected mayor of Kendal and by 1645 is Colonel Benson in command of the town's garrison.^[5] He was driven out of Kendal during the second civil war but following parliament's victory became prominent in regional administration and known in London. He used the 1650 oath of engagement with the effect of the House of Commons removing a number of Kendal corporation men. It has been suggested his use of outside authority in local matters showed a lack of majority local support.^[6]

When Gervase Benson became Quaker can be pinpointed within a year or so. In July 1651, his signature on a cleric's augmentation shows that he is likely not then Quaker. In June 1652, George Fox visited a church at Sedbergh at the home of Benson^[7] showing that he has become 'convinced' in the preceding eleven months. He was on the bench at James Nayler's trial at Westmorland sessions in early 1653^[8] and later in the year advanced Quaker beliefs in public debate in Kendal. Others on the Kendal corporation saw to his removal from the corporation in September 1653, one of the first Quakers removed from office on religious grounds. Benson would answer the pamphlet war against Quakers in 1655.^[6] Benson is credited with early missionary work in London and his efforts in Quaker fund-raising. He on occasion spoke in opposition to George Fox for northern Quakers in organizational matters. He was heavily involved in the movement to abolish tithes, another subject on which he wrote.

His first wife Dorothy was buried at their house at Haygarth, Sedbergh, Yorkshire on 28 Feb 1656. On 8 Apr (Quaker 2nd month) 1660 he married Mabell, widow of John Camm of Camsgill.^[9][10] After the Restoration, he became a leading authority over oaths with Anglican probate officials and published books on the subject in 1669 and 1675. By 1678, he had moved back to Kendal, Westmorland where he was buried in the Quaker burial ground on 5 May 1679.^[9][11]

His 1678 will which was probated 8 Aug 1679 names his wife, three sons and five daughters.^[12]

Children

Gervase's children included:

• Katherine, born at Sedbergh, Yorkshire on 8 August 1650^[13][14]
• Gervase, born in Sedbergh, Yorkshire on 24 November 1651^[15][16]
• John, born in Sedbergh, Yorkshire on 16 January (Quaker 11th month) 1652/3 (1653 in modern reckoning)^[17][18][19]
• Emanuel - b 2 February (Quaker 12th month) 1653/4 (1654 in modern reckoning), York^[20][21][22] (youngest son, born while his mother was in prison)
• Mary, who was almost certainly born after 1660m, with her mother Gervase's second wife, as she appears to have been still a child when her father died in 1679^[23]

Research Notes

Son Emmanuel

Penney says of son Emmanuel, ‘his name does not reappear in the Westmorland registers’ (First Publishers page 251, note 13), but he is recorded in the parish registers of Dent as marrying Mary Fawcett (21 December 1682), and having at least two children, Dorothy (christened 18 March 1683), and Gervase (christened 31 December 1685).

Son John

John may be the John Benson who married Mary Atkinson at Holme Quaker Meeting, Cumberland in 1672.^[24]

Written Works

• The Cry of the Oppressed (1656), London, Giles Calvert
• A true testimony concerning oaths & swearing &c in 1669
• A second testimony concerning oaths and swearing in 1675

Sources

1. ↑ Cumbria AS, Kendal corporation archives, esp. Book of Record, apprenticeship register 1645–1789, chamberlains' accounts, records of mayors' elections, papers listed by HMC
2. ↑ C. B. Phillips, ‘Colonel Gervase Benson, Captain John Archer and the corporation of Kendal, c.1644–c.1655’, Soldiers, writers and statesmen of the English revolution, ed. I. Gentles and others (1998), 183–201
3. ↑ Paver's Marriage Licences Vol 1 1630-1644
4. ↑ Pallot's Marriage Index
5. ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry for 'Benson, Gervase ', print and online 2004, citing C. B. Phillips, ‘County committees and local government in Cumberland and Westmorland, 1642–1660’, Northern History, 5 (1970), 34–66
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry for 'Benson, Gervase ', print and online 2004
7. ↑ W. C. Braithwaite, The beginnings of Quakerism, Macmillan, London, 1923, p 83
8. ↑ University of Lancaster Quaker Research Biography of Gervase Benson
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1} Society of Friends' Registers, Notes and Certificates of Births, Marriages and Burials. Records of the General Register Office, Government Social Survey Department, and Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, RG 6. The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, England. Piece 1246: Quarterly Meeting of Westmorland (1649-1778)
10. ↑ Society of Friends' Registers, Notes and Certificates of Births, Marriages and Burials. Records of the General Register Office, Government Social Survey Department, and Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, RG 6. The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, England. Piece 1568: Monthly Meeting of Kendal: Register Book for Preston: Marriages (1660-1809)
11. ↑ Society of Friends' Registers, Notes and Certificates of Births, Marriages and Burials. Records of the General Register Office, Government Social Survey Department, and Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, RG 6. The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, England. Piece 1543: Monthly Meeting of Kendal: Register book (1643-1774)
12. ↑ Lancashire Archives Probate Index Archdeaconry of Richmond (1533-1748), Westmorland, Ref R411A/43
13. ↑ England & Wales, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Births 1578-1841, WESTMORLAND: Monthly Meeting of Sedbergh, RG6/1285, FindMyPast and accompanying image
14. ↑ "England and Wales Non-Conformist Record Indexes (RG4-8), 1588-1977," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F72R-TSM : 11 December 2014), Gervase Benson in entry for Katherine Benson, 08 Aug 1650, Birth; citing p. 15, Sedburgh, Westmorland, record group RG6, Public Record Office, London
15. ↑ "England and Wales Non-Conformist Record Indexes (RG4-8), 1588-1977," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FWX8-JH3 : 11 December 2014), Gervase Benson, 24 Nov 1651, Birth; citing p. 15, Sedburgh, Westmorland, record group RG6, Public Record Office, London
16. ↑ General Register Office: Society of Friends' Registers, Notes and Certificates of Births, Marriages and Burials. Records of the General Register Office, Government Social Survey Department, and Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, RG 6/1246, The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, England, Quarterly Meeting of Westmorland, Ancestry.co.uk and accompanying image
17. ↑ England & Wales, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Births 1578-1841, WESTMORLAND: Quarterly Meeting of Westmorland, RG6/1246, FindMyPast and accompanying image - the transcript misinterprets the year as 1652
18. ↑ "England and Wales Non-Conformist Record Indexes (RG4-8), 1588-1977," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FQ8Y-3PF : 11 December 2014), Gervase Benson in entry for John Benson, 16 Jan 1652, Birth; citing p. 15, Sedburgh, Westmorland, record group RG6, Public Record Office, London: the transcript misinterprets the year as 1652
19. ↑ England & Wales, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Births 1578-1841, WESTMORLAND: Monthly Meeting of Sedbergh, RG6/1285, FindMyPast and accompanying image: the transcript misinterprets the year as 1652
20. ↑ Society of Friends' Registers, Notes and Certificates of Births, Marriages and Burials. Records of the General Register Office, Government Social Survey Department, and Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, RG 6. The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, England. Piece 1285: Monthly Meeting of Sedbergh (1649-1779)
21. ↑ England & Wales, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Births 1578-1841, WESTMORLAND: Quarterly Meeting of Westmorland, RG6/1246, FindMyPast and accom0anying image]
22. ↑ "England and Wales Non-Conformist Record Indexes (RG4-8), 1588-1977," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FQY4-46D : 11 December 2014), Immanuel Benson, 02 Feb 1653, Birth; citing p. 43, Westmorland, record group RG6, Public Record Office, London: note that the transcript gives the year as 1653 and garbles the spelling of the name of the Gervase of this profile
23. ↑ Christine Trevett. Women and Quakerism in the 17th Century, William Sessions, 1991, p. 120
24. ↑ England & Wales, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Marriages 1578-1841, CUMBERLAND AND NORTHUMBERLAND: Monthly Meeting of Holme (comprising Maryport, Wigton, Allonby, etc): Holme, RG6/1542, FindMyPast and accompanying image

See Also:

• University of Lancaster Quaker Research Biography of Gervase Benson
• B. Nightingale, The ejected of 1662 in Cumberland and Westmorland: their predecessors and successors, 2 vols. (1911) [1]
• N. Penney, ed., ‘The first publishers of truth’: being early records, now first printed, of the introduction of Quakerism into the counties of England and Wales (1907) [2]
• D. Boulton, Early friends in Dent (1986)
• M. K. Peters, ‘Quaker pamphleteering and the development of the Quaker movement, 1652–1656’, PhD diss., U. Cam., 1996
• C. H. Firth and G. Davies, The regimental history of Cromwell's army, 2 vols. (1940)
• M. E. Hirst, The Quakers in peace and war (1923)
• J. Besse, A collection of the sufferings of the people called Quakers, 2 vols. (1753) Wealth at Death £22 16s. 2d.; probate bond in £500: probate inventory, 8 Aug 1679, Lancs. RO, Archdeaconry of Richmond wills, Kendal Deanery