View source for Viscount Stansgate

{{short description|Viscountcy in the Peerage of the United Kingdom}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox nobility title
| name              = Viscount Stansgate 
| image             = [[File:Coronet of a British Viscount.svg|120px]]<br />[[File:Escutcheon of Benn (including Viscounts Stansgate).svg|150px]] 
| image_size        =  
| alt               =  
| caption           = 
| creation_date     = 20 January 1942 
| creation          =  
| monarch           = [[George VI]] 
| peerage           = [[Peerage of the United Kingdom]] 
| baronetage        =  
| first_holder      = [[William Wedgwood Benn, 1st Viscount Stansgate|William Wedgwood Benn]] 
| last_holder       =  
| present_holder    = [[Stephen Benn, 3rd Viscount Stansgate|Stephen Benn]] 
| heir_apparent     = Hon. Daniel Benn 
| heir_presumptive  =  
| remainder_to      = Heirs male of the first viscount's body, lawfully begotten 
| subsidiary_titles =  
| status            =  
| extinction_date   =  
| family_seat       =  
| former_seat       = Stansgate Abbey 
| motto             = ''Deo Favente''<br>("With God's favour")
| footnotes         =  
}}
'''Viscount Stansgate''', of Stansgate in the County of Essex,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=35426 |date=20 January 1942 |page=345 }}</ref> is a title in the [[Peerage of the United Kingdom]]. It was created in 1942 for the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] politician, former [[Secretary of State for India]] and future [[Secretary of State for Air]], [[William Wedgwood Benn, 1st Viscount Stansgate|William Wedgwood Benn]]. He was the second son of [[Sir John Benn, 1st Baronet|Sir John Benn, 1st Baronet, of The Old Knoll]]. Stansgate's eldest son and heir apparent, Michael Benn, was later killed in the [[World War II|Second World War]]. Consequently, he was succeeded in the title by his second son, the Labour politician [[Tony Benn]], who disclaimed the peerage on 31 July 1963, the day the [[Peerage Act 1963]] passed into law and made it possible for him to do so.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=43072 |date=2 August 1963 |pages=6533–6534 }}</ref> {{As of|2022}}, the title is held by Tony Benn's eldest son, [[Stephen Benn, 3rd Viscount Stansgate]].

Stansgate is a hamlet near the village of [[Steeple, Essex]], on the southern side of the [[River Blackwater, Essex|River Blackwater]] [[estuary]]. The village has been home to several generations of the Benn family since about 1900.<ref name=stansgatepriory>{{cite web |url=http://www.essex-family-history.co.uk/stansgate.htm |title=Stansgate Priory |publisher=Essex Family History |access-date=4 January 2015 |archive-date=8 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708195659/http://www.essex-family-history.co.uk/stansgate.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> They live in Stansgate Abbey,<ref name=stansgateabbey>{{cite web |url=https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/51%C2%B043'00.0%22N+0%C2%B047'34.7%22E/@51.7166667,0.7919478,266m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d51.7166667!4d0.7929722 |title=Stansgate Abbey |publisher=Google Maps |access-date=27 August 2018}}</ref> described by [[Chris Mullin (politician)|Chris Mullin]] as "an ungainly, rambling 1920s house in a stunning location".<ref>{{cite book |page=[https://archive.org/details/walkonpartdiarie0000mull/page/261 261] |title=A Walk-On Part : Diaries 1994-1999 |author=Chris Mullin |publisher=Profile Books |year=2011 |isbn=9781846685231 |url=https://archive.org/details/walkonpartdiarie0000mull/page/261 }}</ref>

==Viscounts Stansgate (1942—present)==
[[File:William Wedgwood Benn cropped.jpg|thumb|150px|William Wedgwood Benn, 1st Viscount Stansgate]]
[[File:Tony Benn2.jpg|thumb|150px|Tony Benn, briefly and unwillingly 2nd Viscount Stansgate]]
{{tree list}}
* [[Image:Coronet of a British Viscount.svg|15px|baseline]] ''[[William Wedgwood Benn, 1st Viscount Stansgate]]'' (1877–1960)
** ''Hon. Michael Julius Wedgwood Benn'' (1921–1944)
** [[Image:Coronet of a British Viscount.svg|15px|baseline]] ''[[Tony Benn|Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn, 2nd Viscount Stansgate]]'' (1925–2014) ([[Peerage Act 1963|disclaimed]] 1963)
*** [[Image:Coronet of a British Viscount.svg|15px|baseline]] '''[[Stephen Benn, 3rd Viscount Stansgate|Stephen Michael Wedgwood Benn, 3rd Viscount Stansgate]]''' (b. 1951)
**** '''(1)''' Hon. Daniel John Wedgwood Benn (b. 1991)
*** '''(2)''' [[Hilary Benn | Rt Hon. Hilary James Wedgwood Benn]] (b. 1953)
**** '''(3)''' James Leon C. Benn (b. 1983)
**** '''(4)''' Jonathan Anthony C. Benn (b. 1987)	
*** '''(5)''' Hon. Joshua William Wedgwood Benn (b. 1958)
**** '''(6)''' William Wedgwood Benn (b. 1984)
** ''Hon. David Julian Wedgwood Benn'' (1928–2017)
*** '''(7)''' [[Piers Benn|Piers Michael Wedgwood Benn]] (b. 1962)
{{tree list/end}}

The [[heir apparent]] is the present holder's son, the Hon. Daniel John Wedgwood Benn (born 1991).

The heir apparent's [[heir presumptive]] is the present holder's brother, the [[Hilary Benn|Rt Hon. Hilary James Wedgwood Benn]] (born 1953).

==Arms==
{{Emblem table
| name = Viscount Stansgate
| image = Coat of arms of Benn, Viscount Stansgate.svg
| imagesize = 180px
| crest = On a rock a spear erect proper, flowing therefrom a pennon azure, charged with the word “Onward”, letters or.
| escutcheon = Argent, two barrulets indented gules, between in chief as many dragons’ heads erased and in base a pencil and a pen in saltire proper, tied with a lace azure, pendent therefrom a torteau, charged with a figure “1914” or.
| motto =  ''Deo Favente'' (By God's favour).<ref>{{cite book|title=Burke's Peerage and Baronetage |edition=107 |date=2003 |pages=342 and 3722 |publisher=Burkes Peerage & Gentry LLC |ISBN=0971196621}}</ref>
}}

==See also==
*[[Benn baronets|Benn baronets, of The Old Knoll]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
*Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). ''Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage'' (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
*{{cite web |last1=Rayment |first1=Leigh |title=Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page - Peerages Beginning With "S" (Part 5) |url=http://www.leighrayment.com/peers/peersS5.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191027142752/http://www.leighrayment.com/peers/peersS5.htm |archive-date=2019-10-27 |url-status=usurped}}
{{Extant British viscountcies}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stansgate}}
[[Category:Viscountcies in the Peerage of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Noble titles created in 1942]]
[[Category:Benn family]]
[[Category:Tony Benn]]