Benjamin Cronyn

Who was Benjamin Cronyn?

Benjamin Cronyn was the first bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Huron. A noted Low Church cleric, he distrusted what he considered to be the romanizing tendencies of Toronto's Trinity College, in 1863, he founded Huron University College which in 1908 grew into the secularised University of Western Ontario. A member of the prominent Anglo-Irish Protestant Ascendancy Cronyn family, he was grandfather of politician Hume Cronyn, Sr. and great-grandfather of actor Hume Cronyn, Jr. and artist Hugh Verschoyle Cronyn GM.

Cronyn was also father to Benjamin Cronyn, Jr. a former mayor of London, Ontario and relative of Robert Whitehead. He was the father-in-law of Edward Blake, Premier of Ontario.