{{Short description|American novelist (1831–1904)}} {{More citations needed|date=February 2024}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2014}} [[File:Benjamin Franklin DeCosta.jpg|thumb]] '''Benjamin Franklin DeCosta''' or '''de Costa''' (July 10, 1831{{snd}}November 4, 1904) was an American clergyman and historical writer.
==Biography== He was born in [[Charlestown, Massachusetts]], and graduated in 1856 at the Biblical Institute at [[Concord, New Hampshire]] (later part of [[Boston University]]), became a minister in the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church]] in 1857, and during the next three years was a rector first at [[North Adams, Massachusetts|North Adams]], and then at [[Newton Lower Falls, Massachusetts]].
After serving as chaplain in the [[18th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry]] and one other Massachusetts regiment during the first two years of the [[American Civil War]], he became editor (1863) of ''[[The Christian Times]]'' in New York City, and subsequently edited ''[[The Episcopalian]]'' and ''[[The Magazine of American History]]''. He was rector of the [[St. John the Evangelist's Church (Manhattan)|Church of St John the Evangelist]] in New York City from 1881 to 1899, at which time he resigned while converting to [[Roman Catholicism]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=De Costa, Benjamin Franklin|volume=7|page=915}}</ref>
He was one of the organizers and long the secretary of the Church Temperance Society, and founded and was the first president (1884–1899) of the American branch of the White Cross Society. He became a high authority on early American cartography and the history of the period of exploration. In addition to numerous monographs and valuable contributions to [[Justin Winsor]]'s ''Narrative and Critical History of America'', he published ''The Pre-Columbian Discovery of America by the Northmen'' (1868); ''The Northmen in Maine'' (1870); ''The Moabite Stone'' (1871); ''The Rector of Roxburgh'' (1871), a novel under the ''nom de plume'' of William Hickling; and ''Verrazano the Explorer; being a Vindication of his Letter and Voyage'' (1880). He died in New York City in 1904.<ref name="EB1911"/>
==See also== {{Portal|Biography|American Civil War}} {{clear}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{wikisource|works=or}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Benjamin Franklin DeCosta}} *[http://www.18thmass.com 18th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807123455/https://www.18thmass.com/ |date=August 7, 2020 }} *[http://www.touchtheelbow.com Touch the Elbow – Blogging the Civil War by researchers of the 18th Massachusetts]
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{{EB1911 article with no significant updates}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Decosta, Benjamin Franklin}} [[Category:1831 births]] [[Category:1904 deaths]] [[Category:Boston University alumni]] [[Category:Anglican priest converts to Roman Catholicism]] [[Category:19th-century American historians]] [[Category:American magazine editors]] [[Category:19th-century American novelists]] [[Category:Union army chaplains]] [[Category:American male novelists]] [[Category:19th-century American male writers]] [[Category:American male non-fiction writers]] [[Category:19th-century American Episcopal priests]]