BENSINGTON, or BENSON, a parish partly in
the hundred of DORCHESTER, but chiefly in that of
EWELME, county of OXFORD, 11 miles (N.W. byN.) from
Henley upon Thames, containing, with the hainlets of
Crowmarsh-Battle and Fifield, 961 inhabitants. The
living is a perpetual curacy, within the jurisdiction of
the peculiar court of Dorchester, endowed with £'200
private benefaction, and £200 royal bounty, and in thepatronage
of the Dean and Canons of Christ Church,
Oxford. The church is dedicated to St. Helen. This
ancient place is reported to have been taken from the
Britons, about 572, by Ceawlin, third king of the Went
Saxons, whose successors retained it for about two hundred
years, until it was surrendered to Offa, King of
Mercia. The Roman way leading from Alchester to
Wallingford crossed the Thames here. A royal palace
anciently stood in the vicinity.