BENYON, Richard I (1746-96), of Gidea Hall, Essex and Englefield House, Berks.

An old Etonian friend of Earl Fitzwilliam, Benyon continued to sit on his interest for Peterborough for the rest of his life. Like his patron, he at first went on opposing Pitt’s administration, voting with the Whigs on Grey’s Oczakov resolutions, 12 Apr. 1791, and on Whitbread’s attack on the Russian armament, 1 Mar. 1792, and supporting the repeal of the Test Act in Scotland in 1791. He agreed with Fitzwilliam, however, in deploring the excesses of the French revolution1Fitzwilliam mss, box 44, Benyon to Fitzwilliam, 17 Oct. 1792. and, as an alarmist, was thought of by Windham for his ‘third party’ in 1793 and joined with the Portland Whigs in supporting government generally during the war with France. No speech is known. He did not long survive his re-election in 1796, dying ‘of the gout in his stomach’ on 22 Aug., leaving estates worth £8,000 p.a.2Gent. Mag. (1796), ii. 791.