https://map.mappingwomenssuffrage.org.uk/files/original/cdde124b9429c1a33939cd0c93b437a4.jpg c34a847de70c4cd0239354c438b7fb66 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Mary Benson's home at Tremans (or Treemans) Horsted Keynes, Sussex. Photograph taken 1932. Source: courtesy www.horstedkeynes.com https://map.mappingwomenssuffrage.org.uk/files/original/b5c910694d935f39895de3be9873f3ec.jpg 9e3a75e461eecc688ea8ba34ac866d5d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Mary Benson, Lucy Tait and others in Tremans garden. Source: courtesy www.horstedkeynes.com Person (Campaigner) A record of a person related to the Mapping Women's Suffrage project Occupation None Age The age of this person at the time of the 1911 UK Census 70 Marital Status The marital status of this person at the time of the 1911 UK Census Widow Address The address of this person at the time of the 1911 UK Census Tremans, Horsted Keynes, Sussex Suffrage Society The suffrage society this person was affiliated with at the time of the 1911 UK Census CUWFA & NUWSS Census This person's response to the 1911 UK Census Complies Biographical Text Mary Benson (1841-1918) as the widow of Edward Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury, was as much solicited as was any titled lady to lend her name to suffragist organisations and causes. With her companion, Lucy Tait, daughter of her husband’s predecessor as Archbishop of Canterbury, she came to live at Tremans, Horsted Keynes, in 1899. In 1902, she was invited by Marie Corbett to speak on women’s suffrage at a Conference of the Sussex Union of Women’s Liberal Associations at Horsted Keynes. Sending apologies, she said that, had she been able to attend, she would have spoken on this subject as both she and the late Archbishop had the cause greatly at heart. The following year she was reported to be ‘taking up the claims of her sex’ regarding the proposed National Church Council. She objected to the decision to limit to men the right of voting for lay representatives to sit on this and urged ‘those who wished for a fair and representative franchise to do all in their power to bring home to Church people at large the gravity of the question’. When the Conservative and Unionist Women’s Franchise Association (CUWFA) was formed in 1909, Mary Benson joined ladies of the nobility, including Eleanor Cecil, as one of its Vice-Presidents. In 1911, she and Lucy Tait attended the meeting of the Horsted Keynes branch of the Central Sussex Women’s Suffrage Society addressed by Lady Betty Balfour, a fellow Vice-President of the CUWFA. Again, with Lady Eleanor Cecil, Mary Benson agreed to be named as one of a list of eminent patrons of two exhibitions staged in Haywards Heath by Central Sussex Suffragists: of Sweated Industries in 1912 and of Women’s Handicrafts in 1913. In April 1913, she and both Lord and Lady Robert Cecil became Vice-Presidents of the newly formed North Sussex branch of the CUWFA. The value of Mary Benson’s identification with the suffrage cause reflected her social status: the news from Horsted Keynes in the Mid Sussex Times of 24th February 1914, was that Mrs Benson and Miss Tait had dined at Lambeth Palace that Monday evening with the King and Queen. Sources: Mid Sussex Times; Conservative Women’s Franchise Association Review. Researched and contributed by independent writer and researcher, Frances Stenlake. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mary Benson Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant ||||osm POINT(-3928.4648295477778 6625340.688421105) CUWFA