Studied at St Mary's College, Oscott, Birmingham, August 1813 to 1818; ordained 16 June 1818 (list of alumni at https://www.oscott.org/, retrieved on 4 November 2025).

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The Catholic Directory and Annual Register for the Year 1838, London, p 34:

Warwickshire: Baddesley, Warwick: Rev. W. Benson.
Ditto for the 1839 edition; 1840, p 21.

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Church of Australia, Australasian Chronicle, Sydney, 23 January 1841, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article31730594:

We have to congratulate the Catholic community upon the arrival of a valuable addition to our ecclesiastical establishment, in the person of the Reverend Mr. Benson. Mr. Benson is destined for South Australia, and our brethren in that province will be proud to learn that their pastor is a disciple of the illustrious and immortal Milner of happy memory. Another clergyman is daily expected to join Mr. Benson, in his new mission, and several others were about to embark for New South Wales. The Very Rev. Vicar General has received the invoice of the new organ for St. Mary's; it occupies sixteen immense packing cases.

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Shipping Intelligence. Arrived, Adelaide Chronicle and South Australian Literary Record, 3 March 1841, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article195860624:

Same Evening [Monday, March 1st]—The brig Dorset, 81 tons, Captain Mackie, from Sydney, having left on the 14th February. Passengers:— [...] Rev. Mr Benson [...]

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Southern Australian, Adelaide, 16 August 1842, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71621855:

Notice is hereby given that in compliance with the Act of Council, 5th Victoria, No. 12, section 33, for regulating Marriages in the province of South Australia, the Rev. William Benson has been entered as an officiating Minister, within the meaning of the said Act.
Charles Sturt,
Registrar-General.
General Registry Office, August 4, 1842.

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To Catholics, Southern Australian, Adelaide, 3 Oct 1843, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71618096:

The Very Rev. J. Brady, Vicar-General, at the request of the Rev W. Benson, will celebrate Mass at Gawler Town, on Sunday next, the 8th instant, at eleven o'clock, A.M.

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Adelaide, Morning Chronicle, Sydney, 25 October 1843, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article31741364:

By letters received from the Rev. Mr. Brady, we are glad to learn that he and his companion, the Rev. Mr. Jousteus, arrived safe and well at Adelaide, where they will remain for some time till they can meet with a vessel bound to Western Australia, the scene of their future labours. Their arrival was like an angel's visit to the Rev. Mr. Benson, who had not seen a brother Priest for these two or three years that he has sojourned in South Australia. After ministering to the spiritual wants of the Roman Catholics of Western Australia, who have been hitherto entirely bereft of all the consolations of religion, they may be able to point out the most likely plan for the formation of a "Mission" to the numerous "Aborigines" of that section of New Holland. We wish them every success in their praiseworthy undertaking.

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The "Dorset", from Sydney, South Australian Register, 24 January 1844, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article73840809:

[...] Among the passengers by the Dorset we observe the names of [...] the Rev. Mr Mahoney, Mr Benson's successor, [...]

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The Roman Catholics, South Australian Register, 10 February 1844, p 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27446542:

This body of professing Christians have, we understand, taken the Southern Cross, occupied now for some years as a tavern, and [are] about to fit it up as a chapel. The Rev. Mr [Ma]honey, who lately arrived by the Dorset, and who [is now] assisting Mr Benson, is, we hear, a staunch [tee]totaller, and succeeded in inducing eighty persons, [or] thereabouts, to sign the pledge of total abstinence Sunday last. A Roman Catholic Bishop, we hear, [is] expected shortly to visit the Province, and then, [the] new chapel, we suppose, will be consecrated.

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Shipping Intelligence, Sydney Morning Herald, 5 March 1844, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12418365:

From Adelaide, last night, having left the 22nd ultimo, the barque Bintang, 264 tons, Captain Wright, with tea, sugar, wheat, &c. Passengers—Rev. Mr. Benson (Roman Catholic clergyman), and Miss Shannon.

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The First Provincial Council and Synod Of Australasia, Morning Chronicle, Sydney, 28 September 1844, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article31743694:

[...] and at the same time we have directed our dearly beloved Clergy to assemble in Synod, as directed by the Apostolical Canon, in our said Metropolitan Church. [...] The Synod was convened for the same time and place, to which the following Priests were summoned [...] The Rev. William Benson, Synodal witness for the Deanery of Sydney.

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Shipping Intelligence. Sailed, The Australian, Sydney, 31 December 1844, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article37122734:

Dec. 30.—The schooner, Oratava, Cooney, master, for Russell, New Zealand, with sundries. Passengers — Most Rev. Dr. Pompalier, Roman Catholic Bishop of New Zealand, and servant, Rev. William Benson, Roman Catholic Clergyman, [...]

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Meeting of St. Patrick’s and the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, Auckland Chronicle and New Zealand Colonist, 2 January 1845, p 4, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ACNZC18450102.2.12:

The monthly meeting of above societies took place on Sunday evening last, in St. Patrick’s Church, the Right Rev. Dr. Pompallier, Bishop of Oceanica,, in the chair. The Rev. Mr. Bourgeois, President of St. Mary’s Seminary, and the Rev. Messrs. Summer, Benson, and Hallinan, were also present.

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Shipping Intelligence. Inwards—Coastwise, New Zealander, Auckland NZ, 26 July 1845, p 2, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZ18450726.2.5:

July 24. Dinah, schooner, Banks, master, from Bay of Islands, in ballast. Passengers, Bp. Pompallier, Rev. Messrs. Benson, and Eong[sic, for Long?].

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Shipping Intelligence. Arrived, The Australian, Sydney, 4 September 1845, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article37157522:

Sept. 2.—The schooner Hannah, 90 tons, Salmon, master, from Port Nicholson the 8th July, and Auckland the 8th Ultimo, with oil, &c. Passengers, Right Rev. Dr. Pompalier [Pompallier], Roman Catholic Bishop of New Zealand, and servant; Rev William Benson Roman Catholic Clergyman; [...]

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Collections for the Propagation of the Faith, Sunday Evening, September 7, 1845, Morning Chronicle, Sydney, 13 September 1845, p 1, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article31746331:

[...] Rev. William Benson, 5 [shillings] [...]

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List of Subscriptions towards the erection of St. Benedict's Church, Sydney, Sunday Evening, September 14, 1845, Morning Chronicle, Sydney, 17 September 1845, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article31746335:

[...] Rev. Mr. Benson, 10 [shillings] [...]

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List of New Subscriptions for St. Patrick's Church, Sunday Evening, September 28, 1845, Morning Chronicle, Sydney, 4 October 1845, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article31746458:

[...] Rev. William Benson, 2 [shillings] 6 [pence] [...]

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List of Subscriptions towards the erection of St. Benedict's Church, Sydney, Sunday Evening, October 26, 1845, Morning Chronicle, Sydney, 29 October 1845, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article31746656:

[...] Rev. Mr. Benson, 10 [shillings] [...]

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The Catholic Church of South Australia, Morning Chronicle, Sydney, 8 November 1845, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article31746719:

The Catholic Church in this Province, like her Divine Founder, commenced her career in holy poverty. From 1836 (the year of the first landing of settlers in South Australia) until the winter of 1840, we had no Priest. The Very Rev. Dr. Ullathorne then paid us a short visit; and in March 1841, the Rev. Mr. Benson was sent to take charge of the mission. He was succeeded in 1844 by the saintly Rev. E. Mahony, of East Maitland, who, amongst other blessings, established the Teetotal Society among our Catholic people. In November 1844, the Right Rev. Dr. Murphy, and the Rev. Mr. Ryan arrived. [...]

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Irish and Scotch Relief Fund, Sydney Morning Herald, 24 July 1847, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12898553:

List of Additional Subscriptions to the 23rd July, 1847:— [...] Rev. William Benson, of Brisbane Water, £2 [...]

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Denominational Schools, New South Wales Government Gazette, Sydney, 12 January 1849, p 70, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article230363995:

With reference to the Regulations, bearing date 24 July, 1848, the Denominational School Board notify, for general information, the appointment of the following Local School Boards. [...] Parish or District: Brisbane Water, Names of Members: Revd. William Benson [...]

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Early Experiences Of Colonial Life.—No. XLI, South Australian Chronicle and Weekly Mail, Adelaide, 2 March 1878, p 20, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article90870029:

After organising the Catholics to collect the means to erect a place of worship and to pay the passage of a priest, whom he promised to procure for South Australia, Dr. Ullathorne returned to Sydney per ship Indus on July the 10th, 1840. The Rev. Mr. Benson was duly appointed by the Vicar Apostolic, and left Sydney by the brig Dorset February 14, 1841, for his mission in South Australia. He was a quiet, delicate gentleman, and scarcely ever left the city. He hired a wooden building which stood near the corner of Topham and Waymouth streets, and lived in a small slab hut in rear of his temporary chapel. The building will be remembered by old colonists as having previously served for a time as a Police-court. Father Benson's health completely gave way during the heat of January, 1843. He returned to Sydney in the following April, and afterwards left for England, and died at Wolverhampton in 1868 at the ripe age of 73.

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Enlargment of St. Francis Xavier's Cathedral, The Express and Telegraph, Adelaide, 8 November 1886, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article208496426:

[...] Dr. Ullathorne also met his flock and held service in a cottage on East-terrace. Other fathers of the church came to South Australia, and in 1842 the Rev. William Benson arrived, who by his labors paved the way for the institution of the bishopric on an organised plan under a bishop and vicar-general. Subsequently the present site on West terrace was secured, and to meet the trying wants of the time he erected St. Patrick's Church, as a schoolhouse during the week and a church on Sunday. A few months previously Dr. Benson had laid the foundation-stone of the mother church of the diocese—St. Mary's, of Morphett Vale. [...]/p>

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Patrick Francis Cardinal Moran, History of the Catholic Church in Australasia, 1895, pp 557-560:

The [South Australian] colony was singularly rapid in its growth, and in 1843 the population was already reckoned at about 16,000. The growth of the Catholic Church, however, was correspondingly slow. Father Benson, who had come from England, was the first priest stationed here. He entered on his mission towards the close of 1839, and after a short visit from Father Cotham in 1841, for about three years never saw a brother priest till FF. Brady and Joostens happened to pass through Adelaide on their way from Sydney to Western Australia. When Adelaide was erected into an Episcopal See in 1842, the Rev. Dr. Ullathorne was urged to accept the onerous dignity of becoming its first Bishop. He replied to the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda that he would not on any account accept the proffered charge, and added that it was quite premature to make any appointment to that See. He had received letters, he said, from Father Cotham setting forth that such was the poverty of the place that the one solitary poor priest stationed there would of necessity be compelled to quit it. He had himself visited the place, and found in it only one Catholic family above the condition of a labourer.

Father Benson, the solitary priest who bore the burden of the day in South Australia, was a man of the greatest simplicity of character. During the years of his ministry in Adelaide, he never once travelled beyond the city precincts. He could not ride, and his poverty was so great that having some skill in carpentering he worked at tables and wooden seats and candlesticks, and other various articles of domestic use, to procure a livelihood. Some of these specimens of his handicraft still remain, and are now regarded as objects of singular curiosity. In 1844, he proceeded to New Zealand and thence to Sydney, and was for a time attached to St. Mary's Cathedral Church. He did not remain long, however, but returned to England, and he appears to have been for some years engaged in the missions of Wales.

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The Roman Catholic Church in South Australia, South Australian Register, Adelaide, 9 September 1896, p 5, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article54833822:

Mr. E. W. Cole, of Rundle-street, is the printer and publisher of a well-printed, well-bound, and exceedingly presentable little volume of over 100 pages, which bears the title of "History of the Catholic Church in South Australia." The author of the work is the Very Rev. F. Byrne, D.D., Vicar-General of the Adelaide Diocese, who has performed the task undertaken by him in a manner which speaks well for his judgment and literary ability, as well as for his diligence as an investigator. [...] The next priest to visit South Australia was the Rev. Mr. Brady, and the first appointed to take charge of the mission was the Rev. William Benson, who seems to have been ill-adapted for the duties entrusted to him. He was succeeded by the Rev. Edmund Mahoney, who was "full of zeal and of great prudence."[...]

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The History of St. Patrick's, The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate, Parramatta, 16 May 1903, p 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article85684758:

In to-day's issue of The Argus will be found some most interesting matter referring to the history of St. Patrick's Church, Parramatta, not hitherto published. [...] The first name in St. Patrick's baptismal register is the Rev. Michael Brennan (1839). The first marriage was celebrated in the Church in 1840. The foundation-stone of the first church was laid on the 17th March, 1836—the first ceremony of the kind performed by Bishop (afterwards Archbishop) Polding in N.S.W. In 1841, about 450 persons regularly attended Mass, and there were 235 monthly communicants. Dean Coffey's name first appears in the baptismal register in 1842; the Rev. William Benson's in 1845 [...]

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New Publications, Advocate, Melbourne, 31 October 1914, p 32, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article151836222:

History of the Catholic Church in South Australia, by the Right Rev. Mgr. F. Byrne, D.D., V.G. J. P. [...] After the departure of Dr. Ullathorne, a little time elapsed before the appointment of the Rev. William Benson, "who reached Adelaide by the brig Dorset on the 14th of February, 1841."

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Centenary, The Mail, Adelaide, 15 July 1944, p 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article57688154:

Next week St. Patrick's Church, Wakefield street, City, will hold centenary celebrations, for 1844 was the year in which Dr. Francis Murphy, the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Adelaide, reached here from Sydney, with Father Michael Ryan, to take possession of his see. They arrived on November 6, in the Mary White. Priests had been here before them, more in missionary guise, after Catholics had held services in private houses. The first of these priests was Dr. Ullathorne, who came in 1840, and conducted services in a store lent by a colonist. His visit was not long, and he was followed by the Rev. William Benson, in February, 1841, who stayed until early in 1844, when the Rev. Edmund Mahony succeeded him. [...]

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Morrison, Rev. R.A., Foundation of the Church in South Australia, 1844-1944, Manly: pro Deo et Australia, 1944, pp 66-76 at pp 68-71:

[...] To the credit of South Australian non-Catholics, it is recorded that as soon as Gawler's refusal became known, a non-Catholic, the Hon. John Bentham Neales, M.L.C. (his Parliamentary honours came later). gave the use of his Auction Mart, and there the first Catholic sermons and instructions were given by Dr. Ullathorne, who said Mass and administered whatever sacraments were required at the time. This same building, in Waymouth Street, Adelaide, was rented also by Father Benson, with the rooms built at its rear.

When Dr. Ullathorne returned to Sydney after a fortnight's stay in Adelaide, he made his report to Dr. Polding, and the Bishop instructed his new Vicar-General, Dr. Murphy. Bishop Polding and Dr. Ullathorne left for Europe later in 1840 to send a Welsh priest. Father William Benson, to South Australia as its first resident priest (1841-1844).

Historical comment has dealt with Father Benson somewhat unfairly. If we dwell a moment on Father Benson, the reader will realise the unfairness. The only foundation for the statement that Father Benson did not work conscientiously in South Australia is the testimony of a "bird of passage" en route to Western Australia. We all know the type of "tourist" who issues infallible pronunciamentos upon the most casual acquaintance with a country and its traditions. The record of Father Benson's administrations in South Australia reaches quite as high a level and average as that, say, of Father Ryan, taking the same time and number of congregation in each case. Indeed, Father Benson's average reaches that of any priest with a small scattered congregation. Father Benson told Governor Grey, in a letter to be found in the Public Archives in Adelaide, that his congregation numbered about "200 artisans." Grey was a man who verified everything, and he must have found Father Benson particularly zealous and trustworthy, for he gave that priest a donation of £10 at a time when money had a high purchasing power, and when Grey's own Treasury could not meet his expenditure. And apropos of this goodwill towards Father Benson on the part of Governor Grey, the same "little bird" who chirped of Father Benson's neglecting his work also chirped of that good priest's being at loggerheads with Grey; Grey was no fool; nor was he an indiscreetly good Samaritan.

Father Benson's greatest faults seem to have been he could not ride a horse, and that he eked out a living by carpentry. Should Father Benson have walked? He was accused of confining his administrations to the city of Adelaide. But where could Father Benson walk to in the South Australia of his time? To the south-east between three and four hundred miles from Adelaide, through virgin bush and often unwatered country? Or up north where Mount Deception and Mount Hopeless daunted the intrepid explorer, Eyre, in 1841? To Clare, the nearest tiny settlement, 80 odd miles from Adelaide? There are records of baptisms by Father Benson of Morphett Vale and Willunga children. Morphett Vale is about 16 and Willunga 30 miles from Adelaide.

Beyond popular tradition there is as much evidence to say that Father Benson visited these places for baptisms, etc., as there is for saying either Father Ryan or Father Mahony visited them, namely entries in registers. In any case, in Father Benson's time, practically the whole population of South Australia was centred about Adelaide. And Woods in his Province of South Australia, prepared for, and at the request of the S.A. Government in 1894, declares that for some years after the foundation of the Province less than one and a quarter acres of the land out of every hundred acquired from the Government was used for agriculture. Prior to 1850 all the food consumed in the colony had to be imported. Leased land was mostly taken up by huge sheep-runs, on which there were isolated huts, often hundreds of miles apart, for the few shepherds; there were no homesteads as we know them to-day.

Both Fathers Mahony (1844-1845) and Ryan (1844-1865) were outstanding missionaries and horsemen born to the saddle. And the horse was then the only means of travel in the hinterland of South Australia. The most accomplished and experienced horsemen and bushmen found any of these back-country journeys always difficult; to one without any bushcraft, these journeys were not only dangerous but foolhardy. Perhaps if one were pressed, one might concede that perhaps Father Benson was not the ideal and heroic pioneer then needed in South Australia, but such an ideal missionary in early South Australia would also have needed to have had many of the gifts and qualities of an explorer as well. The Abbe Huc's task in barbaric Thibet was less exacting. Huc says he walked to the Old Blue Town "along a broad road constructed through the large market, which narrowed the town." In primitive South Australia there were no roads, no old blue towns—the few new brown towns were exhaustingly rare and far between. Even if Father Benson fails to measure up to the ideal missionary, none may deny him his place in our history as a very fine specimen of the gens sacerdotalis. Kitchener was a fine soldier, though he had not the military genius of Napoleon. Do we depreciate Kitchener for that? Father Benson never asked to go to South Australia—he probably knew he was not fitted for the work there—but, like the fine soldier he was, he went where his Bishop sent him, and trusted to his superior’s judgment in the matter. Loyau singles out Father Benson and enshrines him in his book, Representative Men of South Australia among the worthiest South Australian citizens of his time. Few of us hope for equal distinction in future history. And if Father Benson eked out an existence by his carpentry and the work of his hands, so did that exemplar of missionaries, St. Paul, among the Thessalonians. Father Benson was in very good company during his lifetime, and mayhap he is in that same company now. In any case, let us be kind to the memory of our first South Australian resident priest—not merely kind, but just.

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Fr T.J. Linane, From Abel to Zundolovich, Vol. 1, 1979, p 24:

Benson, William. Welsh
A Carpenter, Like His Master
(Footprints, Vol. 1, No. 4)
First resident priest in Adelaide, arriving on 'Dorset' in Nov. 1839. Compelled to earn his pay at the carpenter's bench and to walk to scattered Mass centres, Maligned by the unreliable Mgr. F. Byrne in his 'History of the Church in South Australia' for being "unsuited to pioneering". Later defended by Adelaide Archivist, Fr. R.A. Morrison. Benson was present at the first Sydney synod in '44. Later stationed in Parramatta, 1844-7, Brisbane Water 1847-9. Served also in N.Z. and Wales where he died at the end of 1868; age 74.
Ref.: MDHC File, Torquay, inc. correspondence from Fr. Morrison and his article on same in a Manly Annual.

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E.R. Simmons, Pompallier: Prince of Bishops, Auckland, 1984, pp 126, 135:

Pompallier was left [in April 1850] with three ordained priests: Louis Reynaud, [...]; William Benson, who had paid a visit to New Zealand in 1846 and who arrived to work here on March 1, 1850 (he, too, proved to be of somewhat less than reliable texture); and Henry Fynes, [...]. Reynaud was sent to Howick; Benson looked after Onehunga; and Fynes was stationed at the cathedral. [...]

Pompallier soon lost William Benson, who left New Zealand on May 1, 1851, to return to his native Wales, where he died in 1868. Ambiguous references suggest Benson may have been subject to drunkenness.[...]

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Megan E. Parry, Jean Baptiste Francois Pompallier, Thomas Arnold and Julian Edmund Tenison Woods and Their Contribution to the Formation and Development of Catholic Schooling in Australasia, PHD thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2013, p 46, https://eprints.qut.edu.au/61006/1/Megan_Parry_Thesis.pdf, accessed 13 October 2025:

[...] The initiators of settlement in South Australia held grand hopes and aspirations. [...] The Catholic settlers, however lacked religious instruction, and waited five years until the arrival, in 1841, of their first priest, Rev. William Benson. Born in Pethyr, Wales, his previous mission in the English Midlands had required experience and a strong work ethic. This benefitted the community he served. As Margaret Press states, “Poverty, even penury, was the common state of the Catholic community still”. [...]

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E.R. Simmons, In Cruce Salus: A History of the Diocese of Auckland 1848–1980, Auckland, 1982, p 38:

Pompallier's immediate problem was clergy. He had the four Marist priests who remained, and made one of them, Louis Rozet, his Vicar General. Henry Garnett is listed among those who landed in Auckland; if he really did so, he soon returned t.o Sydney. Robert Croskell, a subdeacon, had left the party at Port Elizabeth. This left Pompallier with three ordained priests of his own - Henry Fynes, an Englishman ordained in Sydney in 1845 who had come to Auckland in October 1849; William Benson who began work in Auckland on March 1, 1850; and Louis Reynaud who had arrived from Europe with Pompallier. [...]

(p 39) William Benson was much the oldest of the clergy, since he was born in Wales in 1794. He was Adelaide's first resident priest from 1841 to 1844, serving then at Paramatta and Brisbane before coming on to New Zealand in 1850. He left New Zealand on May 1, 1851 and died in Wales in 1868.
In Auckland he served at St Patrick's, North Shore, Otahuhu and Onehunga, usually in a relieving or temporary capacity. He seems to have had a drink or personality problem for he was not given responsibility commensurate with his age and experience.

(p 43) In the Auckland isthmus there were four manned stations in the early fifties - St Patrick's, North Shore, Onehunga and Howick. The original placements in April 1850 were as follows:
St Patrick's - Bishop Pompallier, Henry Fynes
North Shore - Louis Rozet SM, Vicar General
Onehunga - William Benson
Howick - Louis Reynaud. [...] Benson departed from New Zealand on May 1, 1851, and Clery was sent to Onehunga.

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E.R. Simmons, Pompallier: Prince of Bishops, Auckland, 1984, p 126:

Pompallier was left with three ordained priests: [...] William Benson, who had paid a visit to New Zealand in 1846 and who arrived to work here on March 1, 1850 (he, too, proved to be of somewhat less than reliable texture); [...] Benson looked after Onehunga; [...]

(p 135) Pompallier soon lost William Benson, who left New Zealand on May l, 1851, to return to his native Wales, where he died in 1868. Ambiguous references suggest Benson may have been subject to drunkenness. [...]