Sir John de Benstede KB (c.1275 –1323/4) was a prominent member of the English royal household in the late 13th and early 14th century.
We find him again mentioned as having charge of the seal during the interval which elapsed between William de Hamilton's appointment as Chancellor (29 December 1304) and its delivery to him (16 January 1305).
[1] In the parliament of 1305, he was one of twenty-one English members appointed to confer with the same number of Scotch representatives concerning the best means of promoting the stability of Scotland.
In June 1307, he was entrusted by the Prince of Wales with the presentation of a petition from the Earl of Ulster and John and Eustace le Poer, praying that the king would assign such other justices in place of those already appointed as would redress certain grievances of which they complained.
In 1315, he was sent to Northumberland with authority to summon the barons, knights, and men-at-arms of the northern counties to meet him to concert measures for securing the border against the incursions of the Scots, and in the following year was despatched on a mission to the court of the pope for the purpose of 'expediting certain arduous matters touching the realm of Scotland and the said pope,’ but was recalled when he had got no further than Dover.
[1] In 1318, he acted as one of the envoys empowered to treat for peace with Robert Bruce, and in the following year was placed on a special commission to assess damages sustained by certain subjects of the Count of Flanders in 1307.
He was appointed justice of the common bench on the accession of Edward II (1307), the king in the same year granting him the right of fortifying his house called Rosemont at Eye, near Westminster, with walls of lime and stone.