Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Benham, William
BENHAM, The Rev. William, B.D., was born at West Meon, Hants, Jan. 15, 1831, his father being the village postmaster, as his grandfather had been before him. He was educated at the village National school, and was favourably noticed by the rector, Archdeacon Bayley, who took him to his house as his little secretary, he being blind. He taught the youth Latin and Greek, and after his death in 1844, Mr. Benham was sent to St. Mark's College, Chelsea, to be trained for a schoolmaster. After working in that capacity for a few years, Archdeacon Bayley's family furnished him with the means of going through the Theological Department of King's College, London. He went out with a first-class, and was ordained by the late Archbishop of Canterbury, then Bishop of London, as Divinity Tutor to his old college at Chelsea. He remained there from 1857 to 1864, when he became Editorial Secretary to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and curate of St. Lawrence Jewry, under the present Dean of Manchester. In 1867 he was favourably noticed as a preacher by some members of Archbishop Longley's family, unknown to himself, and this led to the Archbishop offering him the vicarage of his own parish of Addington. He acted as the Primate's private secretary during the first Lambeth Conference, and passed the Resolutions through the press, and also his last Charge. Archbishop Tait also made him one of the Six Preachers of Canterbury in 1872, and gave him the vicarage of Margate in the same year. His chief work there was the carrying out the restoration of the parish church. In 1880 he was appointed to the vicarage of Marden, and in 1882 to the rectory of St. Edmund the King, Lombard Street, in the City of London. Mr. Benham has published "The Gospel of St. Matthew, with notes and a commentary," 1862; " English Ballads, with introduction and notes," 1863; "The Epistles for the Christian Year, with notes and commentary," 1864; "Readings on the Life of Our Lord and His Apostles," 1880; "The Church of the Patriarchs," 1867; the "Globe" edition of Cowper's works, 1870; Commentary on the Acts in the "Commentary of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge," 1871; "A Companion to the Lectionary," 1872; a new translation of Thomas à Kempis's "Imitatio Christi," 1874; "Memoirs of Catherine and Craufurd Tait," 1879; and "How to Teach the Old Testament," 1881. He has also contributed-articles to "The Bible Educator," Macmillan's Magazine, and other periodicals.