Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Henrietta Frances Benson (1085)

28/05/1860 –05/11/1943

Sister of William Benson, moved to live with him in Berkhamsted late in life.

Relatives

William Lockwood Maydwell Benson(359) — brother

• Melanie Hilton

Henrietta Frances Benson (1860-1943)

Henrietta was born 28 May 1860 in Pulverbatch, Shropshire, the third child of Charles Benson, an architect and land surveyor and his wife Henrietta Emily (née Gilpin). who had been born in Hertford.

In April 1861 the family were living at Princes Street Yeovil and ten years later in North Street, Martock, Somerset where ten year old Henrietta was attending school.

They were still there ten years later, the household consisting of Charles and his wife; twenty two year old daughter Mercy; Henrietta Frances, who was employed as a “private teacher”; eighteen year old Arthur Frank and twelve year old Ina, both students. The family also employed a live-in servant.

By the time Henrietta was thirty her mother had died and the North Street household consisted of her father, his widowed younger brother Bernard, also an architect and Mercy, Henrietta and Ina, all unmarried. Henrietta and Mercy had no occupation given but Ina was a “private kindergarten teacher”.

In 1901 Charles and Bernard were living with Mercy and Henrietta with a live-in general servant to look after them.

Mercy died in 1907 and their father Charles in February 1911. The April 1911 census reveals fifty year old Henrietta living “on her own means” at The Close, Martock, a twelve-roomed house, alone except for one servant.

By 1921 Henrietta had moved back to the place of her birth and was living with her older, unmarried aunt, Frances Charlotte Benson, aged eighty five, in Church Pulvercroft in Shropshire. Also in the household were Henrietta’s older sister Matilda and Ina Gillett and great-niece of Charlotte’s. The household employed one domestic servant.

By 1939 Henrietta had moved to Berkhamsted to live with her widowed brother William Lockwood Mayndell Benson, a retired solicitor, and his daughter Dorothy at Boldre House, Charles Street.

William died 22nd November 1940 aged seventy five and lies here with his wife in plot 359.

Henrietta died 5th November 1943, aged eighty three.