Benjamin Gonson (abt. 1510 - 1577)

Born about 1510 in England

Ancestors

Husband of Ursula (Hussy) Gonson — married 8 Jun 1546 in England

Descendants

Died 26 Nov 1577 at about age 67 in Great Baddow, Essex, England

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Biography

Benjamin Gonson is Notable.

Benjamin Gonson was the successor of his father, Vice-Admiral William Gonson, to the position of Treasurer of the Navy in the reigns of the early Tudors. ^[1]

Career

Benjamin Gonson was a son of William Gonson and his wife Benedicta (Bennet) Waters, ^[2] perhaps not the eldest, although sources are not consistent. He may have been born some time about 1510. ^[3] He was already working with his father for the Crown in some capacity, perhaps as his clerk, before William Gonson's death by suicide in 1544. ^[4] Documents from earlier in the decade show his expenses recorded and paid by the Crown. ^[5] By 1545, he had succeeded to the post of Clerk of the Ships. ^[6]

William Gonson, founder of his family's fortunes, was at the beginning of the 16th century a merchant adventurer and a shipowner whose vessels were engaged in the profitable Levant trade. ^[6] This brought him naturally into the service of the Crown, which was accustomed, rather than maintaining its own navy, to impressing merchant ships into its service in time of war. ^[7] Under Henry VII and VIII, this was changing; the Crown was building its own ships, but naval infrastructure still required the expertise and efficiency of men like Gonson, who eventually became Treasurer of the Navy. After William Gonson's death in 1544, the naval administration he had headed fell into disarray, and in on 24 April 1546 the Crown established the Naval Board, to which Benjamin Gonson was then named as an officer - Surveyor of Ships - with a salary of £40 per annum. ^[8]

By 8 July 1549, Benjamin Gonson had been raised to the post previously held by his father: Treasurer of the Navy, the senior officer of the Naval Board. At about this time, he added to the patrimony passed on to him by his father, purchasing the lease of Sebright Hall in Great Baddow, Essex, as his family seat. ^[9] Nor did Gonson neglect his own business for that of the Crown. He was a shipowner as his father had been, and engaged in trade.

About 1560, a nautical adventurer from Plymouth arrived in London, full of ambitious schemes. John Hawkyns proposed an expedition to the coast of Guinea, to steal Africans from the Portuguese and sell them in the Canary and Caribbean islands, in defiance of the Spanish monopoly on trade in the Americas. This piratical proposal earned the enthusiasm of wealthy investors, including Benjamin Gonson and his colleague on the Naval Board, William Wynter. The Queen herself took an interest, and in 1564 she leased Hawkyns a ship for his second slaving voyage - the Jesus of Lubeck. Gonson invested in two of Hawkyns' voyages - in 1562 and 1564 - and undoubtedly profited in consequence. ^{[10] [11]} On 20 January 1566/7 he married his eldest daughter Katherine to Hawkyns. ^[12]

In 1538, Benjamin Gonson had acquired the lease of the rectory of St. Mary Colechurch, with the tithes and offerings. ^[13] This has given rise to the supposition that he was in Holy Orders; however it appears that it was only a real estate transaction, of a type common following the dissolution of religious institutions under Henry VIII. There was thus no impediment to his marrying, as he did in 1546, having then an income from his post with the Naval Board, on which he remained as Treasurer from 1549 until the end of his life, although sharing the office with his son-in-law Sir John Hawkyns in his last months. ^[14] He was not sorry to do it, being weary of the cares of the office. He told Hawkyns, "I shall pluck out a thorn from my foot and put it in yours." ^[15]

Marriage and Children

In 1546, Benjamin Gonson married widow Ursula Roberts, daughter of Admiralty Judge Anthony Hussey (Huse). They subsequently baptised fourteen children in over two decades, all but one in his home parish of St Dunstan in the East. The exception was Thomasine, "born in the Queen[']s house at Deptford (wherein I dwelled)" in 1564, and baptized in the local church. ^[16] The parish register was not available until 1558, thus some of the baptisms listed here are estimates, Gonson's own records not being accessible. ^[17]

Vincent - 1547

William - 1548

Katherine - 1549

Benjamin - 1501

Ursula

Margarett

Anne

Mary - 12 November 1559

Bennet - 30 September 1562

Thomasine - 1564 (Deptford)

Avice - 18 March 1564/5

Elizabeth - 13 October 1565

Lucretia - 15 April 1568

Anthony - 16 June 1569

Death

Benjamin Gonson died on 26 November 1577 at his seat of Sebright Hall, Great Baddow, Essex. "The Right Worshipfull Benjamin Gonnsone Esquier departed out of this mortall worlde his liffe the 26 day at Sabrites and his bowelles were buryed the 27 daye his boddy being caryed to London to burye his soule we trust is in heaven. Ao. Dmi. 1577." ^[18] He was interred 11 December 1577 at his parish church of St Dunstan in the East, London. ^[19]

Research Note

Many sources have shown Benjamin Gonson's date of birth as 1525. However, in the 1545 Will of his mother, Bennett Gonson, ^[20] she names her four surviving sons, making note that Arthur, apparently the youngest, was not yet twenty-five years of age. No notation of age was made in the case of her other sons, so that it is reasonable to assume they were all of age at the time the Will was dated. In addition, the acquisition by Benjamin Gonson of a lease on real property in 1538 suggests that he must have been of age at that time. Accordingly, his date of birth has been estimated as about 1510.

Sources

1. ↑ Knighton, C S, and Loades, Davis. Elizabethan Naval Administration, p. 516. Taylor & Francis, 2016. Gonson
2. ↑ John Bennell, ‘Gonson, William (d. 1544)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Sept 2015 ODNB
3. ↑ Knighton and Loades, p. 161. They suggest that by the time of his semi-retirement in 1577, he "must have been approaching seventy."
4. ↑ "Henry VIII: January 1545, 26-31." Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 20 Part 1, January-July 1545. Eds. James Gairdner, and R H Brodie. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1905. 38-59. British History Online. Web. 11 June 2022. [1]
5. ↑ "Henry VIII: November 1544, 26-30." Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 19 Part 2, August-December 1544. Eds. James Gairdner, and R H Brodie. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1905. 396-421. British History Online. Web. 11 June 2022. [2]
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} Gunson, Niel W. "The Family of Gunson or Gonson of London and Essex" Gunson
7. ↑ Childs, David. Tudor Sea Power Pen & Sword Books, 2009. Childs
8. ↑ The Royal Navy: History from the Earliest Times. Vol 1, Ch. 13. Navy
9. ↑ Wright, Thomas. Wright's History and Topography of Essex, vol. 1, p. 119. London: George VIrtue, 1831. Wright
10. ↑ Ronald, Susan. The Pirate Queen p. 67 ff. New York: HarperCollins, 2007.
11. ↑ Hazlewood, Nick. The Queen's Slave Trader p. 27 ff. New York: William Morrow, 2004.
12. ↑ Parish Register St Dunstan in the East, City of London, 1558-1653 Ancestry
13. ↑ Keene, D J, and Vanessa Harding. "St. Mary Colechurch 105/0: Parish church of St. Mary Colechurch." Historical Gazetteer of London Before the Great Fire Cheapside; Parishes of All Hallows Honey Lane, St Martin Pomary, St Mary Le Bow, St Mary Colechurch and St Pancras Soper Lane. London: Centre for Metropolitan History, 1987. 405-415. British History Online. [3]
14. ↑ Knighton and Loades, p.613. Joint patent issued 18 November 1577.
15. ↑ Gosse, Philip. Sir John Hawkins 1930. p. 158. Hawkins
16. ↑ BL, Add. MS 15857, fol. 153v
17. ↑ "Miscellanea Genealogica Et Heraldica and the British Archivist" 1886, p. 124. Miscellanea
18. ↑ Burial Register, Great Baddow.
19. ↑ Parish Register of St Dunstan in the East, City of London, 1558-1653. Ancestry
20. ↑ "Will of Bennett Gonson or Gonston, Widow of London", proved 3 February 1546 PROB 11/31/70 TNA

See Also:

• British History online: Great Warley

• Wikipedia: Benjamin Gonson

• "Will of Ursula Gonson, Widow" PROB 11/99/337 [4]

• Boyd's Inhabitants of London: Gonston, Benjamin 1561 FindMyPast

• Wright's History and Topography of Essex https://archive.org/details/historytopograph01wrig/page/118/mode/2up

• Gunson, W. Niel. "The Family of Gunson or Gonson of London and Essex" [5]

• Childs, David. Tudor Sea Power Pen & Sword Books, 2009. [6]