Manly Benson was a Methodist minister. He was born in Newburgh, 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...

 and attended the Newburgh Academy where he was probably influenced by their religious teachings to convert to the Methodist faith.

Benson taught school for some time and then studied for the ministry. In 1867 he was ordained as a minister of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada. He was becoming a well known and admired public lecturer, when, in 1871, he traveled on a lecture tour with William Morley Punshon

William Morley Punshon

William Morley Punshon was an English Nonconformist divine].He was born at Doncaster, Yorkshire, was educated in his native town, and, after spending a few years in business, at the Wesleyan College, Richmond. In 1845 he received his first appointment, at Marden, Kent, and soon became famous as a...

, the five times president of the Wesleyan Methodist Canadian conference. Punshon influenced him greatly and became his mentor.

Manly Benson became an important figure within the Wesleyan Methodist Canadian conference and in Canada as a whole through his lectures and leadership.