Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Benyng, William
BENYNG or De BININ, WILLIAM (fl. 1250), biographer, may be presumed to have been a native of Binning in Linlithgowshire. He was proir of the Cistercian abbey of Newbattle until 1243, when he was elected abbot of Cupar. He resigned this office on 29 Sept. 1258, probably on account of old age. The date of his death is unknown. He wrote the life of John Scot, bishop of Dunkeld, who became an inmate of Newbattle Abbey, and died there in 1203. The continuator of Fordun, who praises the elegance of Benyng's composition, says that he was already prior at the time of the bishop's death; but there is no confirmation of this somewhat improbable statement. This biography does not appear to be now extant, nor is anything known of the other works which Benyng is said by Dempster to have written.
[Dempster's Hist. Eccl. Scotorum. art 188; Scotichronicon, ed. Hearne, 695; Registers of Cupar Abbey, ed. Rogers i. 12; Chronica de Mailros (Bannatyne Club), 102, 105, 156, 184.]