Benjamin Franklin Stevens like his brother
Henry Stevens a bibliographer, was born at
Barnet, Vermont, and was educated at the
University of Vermont, where he was a member of the
Sigma Phi society. In the 1840s he followed his brother to London in the book export business. He formed his own company with Henry J. Brown in 1864, forming the Literary and Fine Arts Agents, B. F. Stevens & Brown, continued by Ralph A. Brown. For about thirty years he was engaged in preparing a chronological list and alphabetical index of American state papers in English, French, Dutch and Spanish archives, covering the period from 1763 to 1784, and he prepared more than 2000 facsimiles of important American historical manuscripts found in European archives and relating to the period between 1773 and 1783. Stevens was elected a member of the
American Antiquarian Society in 1896. He also acted as purchasing agent for various American libraries, and for about thirty years before his death was US despatch agent at London and had charge of the mail intended for the vessels of the United States navy serving in Atlantic or European stations. He died at
Surbiton, Surbiton, Surrey, England, on the 5 March 1902. ==Publications==