Cronyn, Benjamin

First Bishop of Huron.

Benjamin Cronyn was born in 1802 in Kilkenny, Ireland, and was educated there at Kilkenny College. He received a B.A. from Trinity College in Dublin in 1822, and an M.A. in 1825. He was ordained deacon that same year, then priest in 1827. He was curate of Tunstall, Kirkby Lonsdale in England from 1825 to 1827, and married Margaret Ann Bickerstaff in 1826. The couple had seven children. He was curate of Kilcommick, Longford, Ireland from 1827 to 1832, when he and his family travelled to Canada, where he became the priest in charge of London, Ontario. He immediately set about completing a church that was only partially built by his predecessor, and preached to the people of London and the surrounding areas. He was the rector of both London parish and London Township parish from 1836 to 1842, and remained rector of St. Paul's, London, until 1866. He also became the Chaplain of London in 1838. He was an exceptional fundraiser, and when it was decided that the Diocese of Toronto must be divided, he raised £10 000 to set up an endowment for the new Diocese of Huron, which comprised the 13 counties in southwestern Ontario. He was consecrated as the first bishop of Huron in 1857, and would go on to be an active leader and preacher of his diocese. In 1863, he founded Huron College, as an alternative to Trinity College in Toronto, whose teaching, he believed, aligned too closely with Catholicism. His first wife, Margaret, passed away in 1866, and he married Martha Collins in 1868. He attended the first Lambeth conference in 1867, and passed away in 1871.