Benjamin I. Haight
# Benjamin I. Haight

Benjamin Isaac Haight (October 16, 1809 — February 21, 1879) was a prominent Episcopal priest, author, and seminary professor of the nineteenth century, as well the first appointed Custodian of the Standard Book of Common Prayer in the United States. Haight served as professor of pastoral theology at the General Theological Seminary (GTS) in New York from 1837 to 1855.

Born in New York City, Haight was graduated from Columbia College in 1828, and from GTS in 1831. He was ordained to the diaconate in 1831 and to the priesthood in 1834, having been called as rector of St. Peter's Church, New York while he was a deacon. He was secretary of the convention of the Episcopal Diocese of New York for twenty years, and was elected as a trustee of Columbia College in 1843. He was Assistant Rector of Trinity Church, Wall Street.

Haight was a deputy to the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1868, 1871, and 1874; he declined election as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts in 1873. He was appointed Custodian of the Book of Common Prayer in 1868 and held that office until his death in New York in 1879. Haight was also active in the work of the Protestant Episcopal Freedman's Commission and the Protestant Episcopal Church Mission to Deaf-Mutes. He is buried at St. James churchyard in Hyde Park, New York.

His son Charles C. Haight was a prominent New York architect who designed much of the old campus of Columbia University, several buildings at Yale University, many buildings at the General Seminary in Chelsea, and churches throughout the United States.

