Joshua Bates (financier)
Joshua Bates | |
---|---|
Born | Weymouth, Massachusetts, U.S. | October 10, 1788
Died | September 24, 1864 | (aged 75)
Spouse | Lucretia Augusta Sturgis |
Children | 2 |
Parent(s) | Joshua Bates Tirzah Pratt Bates |
Relatives | Sylvain Van de Weyer (son-in-law) |
Joshua Bates (October 10, 1788 – September 24, 1864) was an American international
Early life
Bates was born in Commercial St.,
His paternal grandparents were Abraham Bates and Sarah (née Tower) Bates.[3]
Career
Early in his career, he worked for William Gray, owner of Gray's Wharf in Charlestown.[5] A merchant and a banker, in 1828 Bates became associated with the great house of Baring Brothers & Co. of London, of which he eventually became the senior partner. He was arbitrator of the commission convened in 1853 to settle the claims of American citizens arising from the War of 1812.
In 1852, he founded the Boston Public Library by giving $50,000 for that purpose (equivalent to $1,831,200 in 2023), with the provision that the interest of the money should be expended for books of permanent value, and that the city should make adequate provision for at least 100 readers. He afterward gave 30,000 volumes to the institution, the main hall ("Bates Hall") of which is named after him.
Bates was prominent among expatriate Americans in London in the years before and during the
Personal life
Bates married Lucretia Augusta Sturgis (1787–1863);
- William Rufus Gray Bates (1815–1834), who died young.[3]
- Elizabeth Anne Sturgis Bates (1817–1878), who married Belgian Prime Minister Sylvain Van de Weyer.[10]
Bates died on September 24, 1864. He was buried at
Descendants
Through his daughter Elizabeth, he was the grandfather of seven, including Eleanor Van de Weyer, who married
Image gallery
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Bust of Bates, in Boston Public Library
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Bates Hall, McKim building, Boston Public Library, named in Bates' honour
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Bates Hall, McKim building, Boston Public Library
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Bates's only daughter Elizabeth, wife to the Belgian minister Sylvain Van de Weyer. Engraving after a portrait by Thomas Sully
See also
- Bates Hall, Boston Public Library, McKim Building
- Joshua Bates School, South End, Boston, Massachusetts
Notes
- ^ Dictionary of American Biography. Scribner. 1937. p. 52. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
- ^ Revolutionary War Period: Bible, Family & Marriage Records Gleaned from Pension Applications. 2006. p. 62. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
- ^ ISBN 9781469618180. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
- ^ History of Weymouth, Massachusetts. Higginson Book Company. 1923. p. 729. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
- ^ Timothy Thompson Sawyer. Old Charlestown: historical, biographical, reminiscent. J.H. West Co., 1902
- ^ Persuading John Bull: Union and Confederate Propaganda in Britain, 1860–65 By Thomas E. Sebrell, page 110
- ^ Boston Beheld: Antique Town and Country Views By D. Brenton Simons
- ISBN 9781315445229. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
- ^ Tribute of Boston Merchants to the Memory of Joshua Bates: October, 1864. J. Wilson and Son. 1864. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
- ISBN 9781108036160. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
- ISBN 9781862877436. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
- ^ Burke, Bernard (1898). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland. Harrison & Sons. p. 1512. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
References
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.)
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(help - Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- Harrison, Robert (1885). Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 3. London: Smith, Elder & Co. . In
Publications
- Tribute of Boston merchants to the memory of Joshua Bates: October, 1864.
- Memorial of Joshua Bates (Boston, 1865)
- Persuading John Bull: Union and Confederate Propaganda in Britain, 1860–65