Mary Sidgwick was born in Britain in 1841, at
Skipton, Yorkshire, the only daughter of Rev. William Sidgwick of Skipton, Yorkshire, who was a headmaster, and his wife, Mary (née Crofts), whose parents were the Rev. William Crofts, B.D., vicar of North Grimston, and Miss Carr of Bolton Abbey, who were married at
York in 1804. She was the youngest of six children, and was nicknamed Minnie. Among her older brothers was the philosopher
Henry Sidgwick. When she was 18, she married her second cousin
Edward White Benson. Edward had proposed to Mary when she was 12 and he was 24. They were married on 23 June 1859 at
Rugby, Warwickshire, by
Frederick Temple. Between 1860 and 1871 they had six children. Their daughter,
Margaret Benson was an artist, author and amateur
Egyptologist.
Mary Eleanor "Nellie" Benson was a social worker and writer. Their second son was
A. C. Benson, the author of the lyrics to
Elgar's "
Land of Hope and Glory" and master of
Magdalene College, Cambridge. Their fifth child was novelist
E. F. Benson, best remembered for the
Mapp and Lucia novels. Their sixth and youngest child,
Robert Hugh Benson, became a priest in the Church of England before converting to Roman Catholicism and writing many popular novels. After her husband's death in 1896 Mary set up household with Lucy Tait, daughter of the previous archbishop of Canterbury,
Archibald Campbell Tait, who had first moved in with the Bensons in 1889. She died on 15 June 1918 in
East Sussex. Tait and Benson are buried at
St Mary's Church, Addington, Surrey, with their respective families. ==Children==