Isaac da Costa

Isaac da Costa was a merchant and shipping agent of colonial Charleston, South Carolina. Da Costa was born in London, and immigrated to Charleston in the late 1740s where he helped found Congregation Beth Elohim in 1749, serving as ḥazzan for some years. In 1764 he gave a plot of land to the congregation for use as a communal cemetery, which exists today as Coming Street Cemetery.

Isaac was handling exports of rice, indigo, lumber, and pitch, and imports and coastal shipments of European and Indian goods, rum, spermaceti, and slaves. As ardent supporter of the American cause during the Revolutionary War, Da Costa was banished and his property seized by the British when Charleston fell in 1780. He went to Philadelphia, where, in 1782, he helped establish Congregation Mikveh Israel. One year later he returned to Charleston, and died the same year.