Joseph Peabody (December 9, 1757 – January 5, 1844) was a merchant and shipowner who dominated trade between Massachusetts and the Far East for a number of years.

Family and career

He was descended from Francis Peabody of

St. Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman r ...

, England, in 1635. He was one of the first settlers of

Topsfield, Massachusetts Topsfield is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 6,569 at the 2020 census. Topsfield is located in the North Shore region of Massachusetts. Part of the town comprises the census-designated place of Topsfiel ...

. During the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

he was an officer on

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

s, and acted with credit as second officer of the letter of marque ''Ranger''. He was captain of several merchant vessels, and his company built 83 ships. He became extremely wealthy and used that wealth for philanthropy. Peabody was the wealthiest merchant-shipowner of

Salem, Massachusetts Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem would become one of the most significant seaports tr ...

between the

embargo of 1807 The Embargo Act of 1807 was a general trade embargo on all foreign nations that was enacted by the United States Congress. As a successor or replacement law for the 1806 Non-importation Act and passed as the Napoleonic Wars continued, it repr ...

and 1845.

Brig ''Leander''

His

brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the ...

''Leander'' tons, built at Salem in 1821, made twenty-six voyages to Europe, Asia Minor, Africa, and the Far East in the twenty-three years of her life.

Ship ''George''

The ship ''George'' was by by , displaced , and was designed somewhat like a

Baltimore clipper A Baltimore Clipper is a fast sailing ship historically built on the mid-Atlantic seaboard of the United States of America, especially at the port of Baltimore, Maryland. An early form of clipper, the name is most commonly applied to two-masted ...

. Built at Salem for a privateer in 1814, she was purchased by Mr. Peabody for USD $5,250. It is said that she made Salem in forty-one days from the Cape of Good Hope in 1831. ''George'' made twenty-one round voyages from Salem to

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

between 1815 and 1837, with such regularity that she was called the "Salem Frigate." Salem vessels were always manned in part by local boys. Twenty-six of ''George's'' went on to become mates and forty-five captains.

Pepper trade and China trade

For several years Joseph Peabody competed in the

China trade The Old China Trade () refers to the early commerce between the Qing Empire and the United States under the Canton System, spanning from shortly after the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783 to the Treaty of Wanghia in 1844. The Old ...

, and continued the famous pepper trade between

and

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

.Hunt, F.

858 __NOTOC__ Year 858 ( DCCCLVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Summer – King Louis the German, summoned by the disaffected Frankish ...

''Lives of American merchants - Vol 1''. (vi
Google Books
)

Capture of the ''Friendship'' by pirates

In 1830 Peabody's ship ''Friendship'' was attacked and captured off the village of Quallah-Battoo (Kuala Batee, South West Aceh,

Aceh Aceh ( ), officially the Aceh Province ( ace, Nanggroë Acèh; id, Provinsi Aceh) is the westernmost province of Indonesia. It is located on the northernmost of Sumatra island, with Banda Aceh being its capital and largest city. Granted a s ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

) by Malay pirates while loading pepper. The ship ''James Monroe'' of New York set out to recover the ''Friendship,'' with the help of crew from ''Governor Endicott'' of New York and brig ''Palmer''. The pirates initially refused to surrender, but jumped overboard and fled after the three ships opened fire on the village. The following morning, four ''Friendship'' survivors in poor condition showed up in a small boat, having swum two miles down the coast and hidden in the jungle in order to escape the pirates. In reprisal for the massacre of the crew of the ''Friendship'', a punitive expedition was launched in 1832, now known as the

First Sumatran Expedition The First Sumatran expedition, which featured the Battle of Quallah Battoo ( Aceh: Kuala Batèë, Indonesian: Kuala Batu) in 1832, was a punitive expedition by the United States Navy against the village of Kuala Batee, presently a subdistrict ...

Family

In 1791, Peabody married his first wife, Catherine, who was the daughter of a minister friend. She died within a couple of years. In 1795, he married Catherine's sister, Elizabeth. They had four children. His first son, Joseph Augustus (1796–1828), graduated from Harvard in 1816. Another son, George, was father-in-law of

William Crowninshield Endicott William Crowninshield Endicott (November 19, 1826 – May 6, 1900) was an American politician and Secretary of War in the first administration of President Grover Cleveland (1885–1889). Early life Endicott was born in Salem, Massachusetts o ...

. One of Peabody's descendants was

Augustus Peabody Gardner Augustus Peabody Gardner (November 5, 1865 – January 14, 1918) was an American military officer and Republican Party politician from Massachusetts. He represented the North Shore region in the Massachusetts Senate and United States House of Re ...

.Gardner, Frank A MD 933''Gardner memorial : a biographical and genealogical record of the descendants of Thomas Gardner, planter, Cape Ann, 1624, Salem'' (also, vi
ancestry.com

References

''This article incorporates text found in the public domain because it was published before 1923.'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Peabody, Joseph 1757 births 1844 deaths

Joseph Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

People of Massachusetts in the American Revolution People from Topsfield, Massachusetts People from Salem, Massachusetts Pepper trade American businesspeople in shipping Maritime history of India History of Sumatra