The Ilford appointment had been in Salisbury's personal gift; in his official capacity as prime minister he was responsible for Henson's next appointment: rector of St Margaret's, Westminster and canon of Westminster Abbey in 1900. St Margaret's, the parish church of the British parliament, was a high-profile appointment; Henson followed predecessors as willing as he was to court controversy including Henry Hart Milman and Frederic Farrar. His eventual successor as Bishop of Durham, Alwyn Williams wrote that at St Margaret's, Henson's brilliance as a speaker and independence of thought attracted large congregations and "his increasingly liberal churchmanship" appealed to a wide range of public opinion, though some of his views offended the orthodox.