author
Benjamin Franklin Bowen
Known today for a single unusual 19th-century work, this little-known writer explored the legend that Welsh voyagers reached America long before Columbus. His book remains a curious window into the era's appetite for bold historical theories and romantic speculation.
1 Audiobook
America Discovered by the Welsh in 1170 A.D.
by Benjamin Franklin Bowen
About the author
Benjamin Franklin Bowen is credited with America Discovered by the Welsh in 1170 A.D., a book first published in 1876. Library and public-domain records identify him as Rev. Benjamin F. Bowen, and surviving catalogs point to this title as the work for which he is remembered.
In that book, Bowen argues for the old legend that Prince Madoc and other Welsh voyagers reached North America centuries before Columbus. The subject places him among 19th-century writers who blended historical research, patriotic enthusiasm, and fascination with disputed episodes from the distant past.
Very little biographical information about Bowen appears to be widely preserved in major public sources. What can be confirmed is narrow but clear: he was a clergyman, he published this distinctive work in Philadelphia in 1876, and that book has remained accessible through library collections and Project Gutenberg.