Benson, Edward White (1829-1896)

Official correspondence and papers, ranging comprehensively over the history of the Church of England at home and abroad. A significant proportion concerns the diocese of Canterbury.

Edward White Benson was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1883 until his death in 1896.

These form part of the Archbishops' Papers. These in turn form part of the archives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, which also comprise: Bishops' Meetings records (BM), Cartae Antiquae et Miscellaneae (Lambeth Charters) (CM), Convocation records (Conv), Court of Arches records (Arches), Faculty Office records (F), Lambeth Conference papers (LC), Temporalities records (ED and T), including correspondence on the Archbishops' estates (TR 8-36), and Vicar General records (V).

The papers were bound where possible in the order in which they were entered in the contemporary Letter-Register (vol.175). Special Packets: vols. 149-174. Dates in file descriptions are those of registration, not the covering dates of the papers.

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The 19th-century Archbishops' Papers (Longley, Tait, Benson, Frederick Temple) are catalogued more comprehensively than most of the 20th-century Archbishops' Papers.

Catalogue entries based on published 'Index to the letters and papers of Edward White Benson, archbishop of Canterbury, 1883-1896, in Lambeth Palace Library' (London, 1980), containing a list and index. Published list available to purchase exclusively from the Library.

Catalogue entries for correspondents are selective, and are confined in the main to persons mentioned in the Dictionary of National Biography, Who Was Who, and the Letter-Register. The majority of Benson's clerical correspondents have also been indexed. With regard to papers concerning parochial matters, a broad distinction was made between the personal and the official. The former were indexed under the name of the incumbent and the latter under the parish.

The initial indexing of the papers was undertaken by three archivists. Mrs. Mary Stewart indexed vols.1-113, Miss Janet Wallace vols.114-28, and Mrs. Margaret Walk vols. 129-81.

OTHER PAPERS OF E. W. BENSON IN LAMBETH PALACE LIBRARY

1. Benson's Register, 1883-96.

2. Canterbury Diocesan Visitation Returns, 1885, 1889, 1893.

3. Lambeth Conference Papers, 1878, 1888.

4. Minutes of the Bishops' Meetings, 1878-1896.

5. Papers on the Archbishop of Canterbury's Mission to the Assyrian Christians.

6. Letters of Benson will also be found in the Papers of Archibald Campbell Tait (1811-82), and of Randall Thomas Davidson (1848-1930), and in the following printed catalogues:

Calendar of the Papers of Charles Thomas Longley, Archbishop of Canterbury 1862-1868 in Lambeth Palace Library, by J. E .Sayers and E.G.W. Bill, 1976.

Index to the Letters and Papers of Frederick Temple Archbishop of Canterbury 1896-1902 in Lambeth Palace Library, by M. Barber, 1975.

A Catalogue of Manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library MSS. 1222-1860, by E.G.W. Bill, 1972.

Catalogue of the Papers of Roundell Palmer (1812-1895) First Earl of Selborne, by E.G.W. Bill, 1967.

A Catalogue of Manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library MSS.1907- 2340, by E.G.W. Bill, 1976.

PAPERS ELSEWHERE

E W Benson: diaries, commonplace books and copy correspondence in Trinity College Library, Cambridge.

Benson family: correspondence and literary manuscripts of Benson brothers (Arthur, Frederic, Hugh) and their father the Archbishop in the Bodleian Library (1992).