James Rea Benson was an Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

 businessman and political figure. He represented Lincoln

Lincoln (electoral district)

Lincoln was a federal electoral district represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1867 to 1883 and from 1904 to 1997. It was on the Niagara Peninsula in the Canadian province of Ontario...

 in the 1st Canadian Parliament

1st Canadian Parliament

The 1st Canadian Parliament was in session from November 6, 1867 until July 8, 1872. The membership was set by the 1867 federal election from August 7 to September 20, 1867, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections until it was prorogued prior to the 1872 election.It was...

 as a Liberal-Conservative member until March 14, 1868, when he was named to the Senate of Canada for St. Catharines.

He was born in Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 in 1807 and came to Kingston

Kingston, Ontario

Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...

 in Upper Canada

Upper Canada

The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...

 with his family in 1819. He later moved to St. Catharines

St. Catharines, Ontario

St. Catharines is the largest city in Canada's Niagara Region and the sixth largest urban area in Ontario, Canada, with 97.11 square kilometres of land...

, where he was a hardware merchant, also operating mills and ships in partnership with Thomas Rodman Merritt

Thomas Rodman Merritt

Thomas Rodman Merritt was an Ontario businessman and political figure in Upper Canada. He represented Lincoln in the Canadian House of Commons as a Liberal member from 1868 to 1874....

. Benson was president of the Niagara District Bank, the Welland Loan Company and the St. Catharines Gas Company. He served on the town council for St. Catharines and on the council for Lincoln County

Lincoln County, Ontario

Lincoln County is a historic county in the Canadian province of Ontario.The county was formed in 1792. In 1845, the southern portion of Lincoln County was separated to form Welland County....

. He died in 1885 in Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

 while still in office.

The city of St. Catharines purchased his residence and used it for some time as the city hall.

Benson married the daughter of Charles Ingersoll

Charles Ingersoll

Charles Fortescue Ingersoll was a businessman and political figure in Upper Canada.He was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts in 1791, the son of Thomas Ingersoll and younger brother of Laura Ingersoll . The family moved to Upper Canada in 1795. He began work as a clerk for merchants at...

. His daughter Helen married Calvin Brown, the first mayor of St. Catharines. His niece, Mary Benson, the daughter of his brother Thomas, married Thomas Rodman Merritt

Thomas Rodman Merritt

Thomas Rodman Merritt was an Ontario businessman and political figure in Upper Canada. He represented Lincoln in the Canadian House of Commons as a Liberal member from 1868 to 1874....

.