Benjamin Wood (MP)
{{Short description|British Whig politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|honorific-prefix =
|name = Benjamin Wood
|honorific-suffix =
|image =
|alt =
|caption =
|office = Member of Parliament
for Southwark
|term_start = 24 January 1840
|term_end = 13 August 1845
|predecessor = Daniel Whittle Harvey
John Humphery
|successor = William Molesworth
John Humphery
|alongside = John Humphery
|birth_date = 1787
|birth_place =
|death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1845|08|13|1787}}
|death_place =
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|residence =
|alma_mater =
|birthname =
|nationality = British
|party = Whig
|otherparty =
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}}
Benjamin Wood (1787 – 13 August 1845){{cite web |last1=Rayment |first1=Leigh |title=The House of Commons: Constituencies beginning with "S" |url=http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Scommons4.htm |website=Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page |accessdate=23 October 2018 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20181023222933/http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Scommons4.htm |archivedate=23 October 2018 |url-status=usurped |date=30 April 2018 }} was a British Whig politician.{{cite news |title=Southwark |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000819/18400127/023/0002 |accessdate=23 October 2018 |work=Dublin Morning Register |date=27 January 1840 |page=2 |via = British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription }}{{cite news |title=Southwark Election |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000418/18400125/010/0002 |accessdate=23 October 2018 |work=Cambridge Independent Press |date=25 January 1840 |page=2 |via = British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription }}{{cite book |last1=Stooks Smith |first1=Henry |title=The Parliaments of England, from 1st George I., to the Present Time. Vol II: Oxfordshire to Wales Inclusive |date=1845 |publisher=Simpkin, Marshall, & Co. |location=London |pages=70–72 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HacQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA70 |via=Google Books |accessdate=23 October 2018}} He was Member of Parliament for Southwark from 24 January 1840 until his death in 1845
Life
Benjamin Wood was born in Tiverton, Devon, the son of William Wood (died 1809), a serge maker and a Dissenter. An older brother was Sir Matthew Wood, 1st Baronet (1768 – 1843){{Cite web |title=WOOD, Matthew (1768-1843), of 77 South Audley Street, Mdx. History of Parliament Online |url=https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/wood-matthew-1768-1843 |access-date=2023-02-24 |website=www.historyofparliamentonline.org}} also a Whig politician. Benjamin Wood was a partner with his brother in the hops-trading business, Wood, Field & Wood.
Wood twice stood unsuccessfully in the Tiverton constituency as a Whig candidate. In both the 1832 general election and the 1833 Tiverton by-election he lost to Radicals. He stood in Kingston upon Hull in 1837.
Wood was elected as the Whig MP for Southwark at the by-election in 1840 caused by the resignation of Daniel Whittle Harvey. He held the seat until his death at Eltham Lodge in Kent in 1845.{{cite book|editor1-last=Craig|editor1-first=F. W. S.|editor-link=F. W. S. Craig|title=British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885|date=1977|publisher=Macmillan Press|location=London|isbn=978-1-349-02349-3|edition=1st|page=16}}
He is buried in Cressing in Essex.{{Cite web|url=http://www.devon-mitchells.co.uk/getperson.php?personID=I376&tree=Bruton|title=Sir Benjamin WOOD, M.P. B. Est 1790 of Tiverton, Devon. England d. 13 Aug 1845 Eltham Lodge, Kent. England: Devon Mitchells}}
Family
In October 1815 in Kenwyn in Cornwall, he married Anna Maria Michell (1791–1889) daughter of Admiral Sampson Michell and sister of Admiral Frederick Thomas Michell and Charles Collier Michell.{{cite book |last1=Boase |first1=George Clement |title=Collectanea Cornubiensia: A Collection of Biographical and Topographical Notes Relating to the County of Cornwall |date=1890 |publisher=Netherton and Worth, Truro, for the author |isbn=978-0-598-93682-0 |page=563 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eO_p8xlaR7cC&pg=PA563 |language=en}}
A dispute about his widow's will was a possible factor in the divorce of Katharine O'Shea ({{nee|Wood}}) and the downfall of Charles Stewart Parnell
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Hansard-contribs | mr-benjamin-wood | Mr Benjamin Wood }}
{{s-start}}
{{s-par|uk}}
{{s-bef| before = Daniel Whittle Harvey |before2= John Humphery }}
{{s-ttl| title = Member of Parliament for Southwark
| years = 1840–1845
|with = John Humphery
}}
{{s-aft| after= John Humphery |after2= William Molesworth
}}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Benjamin}}
Category:Whig (British political party) MPs for English constituencies