1806.] 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
NEGLECTED BIOGRAPHY. 
MARTIN BENSON, BISHOP OF GLOU- 
_ CESTER. 
YN the Monthly Magazine, vol. xii., p. 
96, is inferted an epitaph on Bifhop 
Benfon’s monument .in Gloucefter cathe. 
dral, with an inquiry after particulars of 
that pious prelate. In anfwer to that in- 
quiry the following brief fketch is commu- 
nicated. 
Martin Benfon was educated at Weft- 
minfter fchool, whence he was eleé- 
ed to Chrift Church, Oxford, of which 
college he became fludent, and took there 
his desrees in arts. After his entering 
into hcly orders, be attended Lord Pom- 
fret on his travels as his tutor. On his 
return he was appointed chaplain to King 
George II., and preferred to a prebendal 
ftall in the cathedral of Salifbury, the arch- 
deaconry of Be:ks, and the rectory of 
Bleachley, in Buckinghamfhire- After 
wards he obtained a prebend in Durham 
cathedral. When the King vifited the 
Univerfity of Cawbridge, in 1730, Mr. 
Benfon was created doctor in divinity. 
By the intereft- of Theophilus Earl of 
Huntingdon, to whom he had been tutor, 
he was advanced to the bifhapric of Glou- 
cetter, and confecrated Jan. 19) 1734, be- 
ing permitted to hold his prebend of Dur- 
ham in commendam. He died Auguft 
30, 1752. Bifhop Benfon was a man of 
confiderable abilities and unaffected piety. 
Hearing of the ferious turn of George 
Whitfield, he took notice of him, and 
ordained him at Gioucefter ; but he was 
afterwards forry enough for what he had 
done.* The B'fhop has in print a Sermon 
on the thirtieth of January, preached be- 
fore the Houfe of Lords. 
ABRAHAM FLETCHER. 
At Little Broughton, in Cumberland, 
was born, in 1714, Abraham Fletcher, a 
felf-taught mathematician of confiderable 
merit. His father was a tobacco-pipe 
maker, and had alfo a fmall eftate, on 
which, with his trade, he was barely en- 
abled to jive, and bring up his family, 
without their becoming burthenfome to 
the panith. It is not certain that his fon 
Abrabam was ever fent to any {chool. 
We mention it only on the authority of 
* The proprietor of the Monthly Maga- 
zine is in poiieffion of the original correfpond- 
ence of Benfon and Whitficid, which he in- 
tends at an early period to infert in this Mif- 
cellany. 
Montuiy Mac., No. 144. 
Negleéied Biography, by Dr. Watkins. 
497 
common report, that, very early in life, 
before he was able to do any work, his 
parents once fpared him for three weeks, 
to attend a fchoo} in the village, where 
youth were taught at the rate of a fhilling 
for the quarter. If this report be well 
founded, all the education he ever had 
that was paid for coft three pence. By 
fome means or other, however, he learned 
to read; and before he had arrived to 
manhood, he had alfo learned to write. 
Wich thele humble atrainments to fet out 
with, it does him infinite honour, that at 
length, by dint of induftry alone, Abra. 
ham Fletcher became a man of fcience 
and a man of learning. He was of a 
thinking, inquifiive mind ; and haying 
taught himfelt arithmetic, in preference 
to any other fcience, only becaufe he met 
with a book of arithmetic and no other, 
for the fame reaion he applied himfelf to 
mathematical inveftigations. Whatever 
he attempted, he attempted with all his 
might, and purfved with unwearied dili- 
gence. In the day-time he was employed 
in hufbandry, or in making pipes ; and 
at night eacerly betook himfelf to work 
the theorems (which word he long ufed to 
pronounce the-ér-ems,) on which, duiing 
the day, he had been intenfely rum:nat- 
ing. Often has he fate up all night, de- 
lineating diagrams, to the ferious grief of 
his parents, who confidered only the ap- 
parent unprofitablenefs of fuch purfuits, 
and the certain lofs of the lump or two of 
canne! coal incurred by his lucubrations. 
Hardly ever, evew in the fublequent and 
“more profperous periods of his life, did 
he afpire to any thing beyond a ruth. 
light. The parents, contented in their 
ignorance, felt no ambition to have their 
fon pals through life otherwife than they 
had done, in the midft of hard work and 
hard fare ; and as his midnight ftudies 
and abftraétednefs of mind f:emed not to 
them likely to quality him e:ther to work 
more or to eat Jefs, they thought it their 
duty, and for his intereft, to difcounte- 
nance and dilcourage his pafiion for the- 
drems': his books and his flate were hid, 
and he was doubie-tafked with labour. It 
was this poor man’s fate to begin and 
continue through life his puifuie after 
knowledge under almoft evéry poflible dif 
advantage : yet difficulties and difcou- 
ragements {cerned but to increale his ar- 
dour. Weremember his relating, many 
years ago, with vali felf-complacence and 
fatisfaétion, a device he had formed, by 
which he flattered himfelf he fhould be 
409.4 permitted 
