Joshua Bates (October 10, 1788 – September 24, 1864) was an American international financier who divided his life between the United States and the United Kingdom.

Early life

Bates was born in Commercial St., Weymouth, Massachusetts on October 10, 1788. He was the son of Col. Joshua Bates (1755–1804), who fought in the American Revolutionary War, and Tirzah (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Pratt) Bates (1764–1841). After his father's death in 1804, his mother remarried to Ebenezer Hunt (1760–1832) in 1808. His sister, Nancy Bates, was married to Capt. Warren Weston, the mother of abolitionist Maria Weston Chapman (who Bates paid for her education in London). His paternal grandparents were Abraham Bates and Sarah (née Tower) Bates.

Career

Early in his career, he worked for William Gray, owner of Gray's Wharf in Charlestown. 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 The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also the Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse'') of the Commonweal ...

by giving $50,000 for that purpose (), 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 Civil War, including diplomats Charles Francis Adams and

Henry Adams Henry Brooks Adams (February 16, 1838 – March 27, 1918) was an American historian and a member of the Adams political family, descended from two U.S. Presidents. As a young Harvard graduate, he served as secretary to his father, Charles Fra ...

, and was active in support of the Union cause. As a patron of the arts he commissioned canvases from Thomas Cole, including a nostalgic view of Boston,Boston Beheld: Antique Town and Country Views By D. Brenton Simons for his house in Portland Place. The house he built for his daughter and son-in-law, New Lodge, was near Windsor. As the representative of her uncle Leopold I of Belgium, also an uncle of Albert of Saxe Coburg Gotha, Sylvain and his charming American wife were popular with Victoria and her court.

Personal life

Bates married Lucretia Augusta Sturgis (1787–1863); she was the first cousin of Captain

William Sturgis William Sturgis (February 25, 1782 – October 21, 1863) was a Boston merchant in the China trade, the California hide trade and the maritime fur trade. Early life Sturgis was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts, to Hannah Mills and William ...

and of Nathaniel Russell Sturgis, both of Boston. Together, they were the parents of: * William Rufus Gray Bates (1815–1834), who died young. * Elizabeth Anne Sturgis Bates (1817–1878), who married Belgian Prime Minister

Sylvain Van de Weyer Jean-Sylvain Van de Weyer (19 January 1802 – 23 May 1874) was a Belgian politician who served as the Belgian Minister at the Court of St. James's, effectively the ambassador to the United Kingdom, and briefly, as the prime minister of Belgium, ...

. Bates died on September 24, 1864. He was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery in the London

Borough of Brent The London Borough of Brent () is a London borough in north-west London. It borders the boroughs of Harrow to the north-west, Barnet to the north-east, Camden to the east, the City of Westminster to the south-east, as well as the Royal Borough ...

in England.

Descendants

Through his daughter Elizabeth, he was the grandfather of seven, including Eleanor Van de Weyer, who married Reginald Baliol Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher (their daughter, Sylvia Brett, married Charles Vyner de Windt Brooke, and became the last Rani of Sarawak); Alice Emma Sturgis van de Weyer, married the Hon. Charles Brand (4th son of Henry Brand, 1st Viscount Hampden).

Image gallery

File:Joshua Bates, Boston Public Library.jpg, Portrait bust of Bates, in Boston Public Library File:USA Boston Public Library 1 MA.jpg, Bates Hall, McKim building, Boston Public Library, named in Bates' honour File:Boston Public Library Bates Hall Reading Room & Clocks, From The Government Documents Office (Boston, MA).jpg, Bates Hall, McKim building, Boston Public Library File:MadameVanderWeyer.JPG, _{Bates's only daughter Elizabeth, wife to the Belgian minister Sylvain Van de Weyer

Jean-Sylvain Van de Weyer (19 January 1802 – 23 May 1874) was a Belgian politician who served as the Belgian Minister at the Court of St. James's, effectively the ambassador to the United Kingdom, and briefly, as the prime minister of Belgium, ...
. Engraving after a portrait by Thomas Sully}

Notes

References

* * *

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

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bates, Joshua (financier) 1788 births 1864 deaths People from Weymouth, Massachusetts American bankers American autobiographers American expatriates in the United Kingdom Businesspeople from Boston 19th-century American people Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery People associated with the Boston Public Library 19th-century American philanthropists 19th-century American businesspeople