Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bates, Joshua
BATES, JOSHUA (1788–1864), for many years head of the banking house of Baring, was born at Weymouth, near Boston, U.S.A., in 1788. He was the only son of Colonel Joshua Bates of that place, and his family was among the first of those that emigrated to New England from the mother country.
At the age of fifteen, Joshua Bates entered the counting-house of W. R. Gray, a merchant of high position and large business in Boston, and was shortly afterwards received into the office of Gray's father, with whom he remained till he was twenty-one. Upon coming of age he opened business in partnership with a Mr. Beckford, who had been a shipmaster in Gray's service. Upon the declaration of war with England in 1812, many business houses collapsed, and the young firm of Bates & Beckford fell in the general crash. Gray, who was at that time the largest shipowner in the country, at once offered Bates re-employment, and despatched him to Europe as his general agent for the superintendence of his affairs. Bates then, making London his residence, visited the various great ports of the continent in the course of his duties. On one of these occasions he made the acquaintance and won the respect of Mr. Peter Labouchere by a disinterested action. Shortly after this, on the failure in London in 1826 of Samuel Williams, an American banker, Bates wrote for counsel to Labouchere, who advised him to wait, but placed 20,000l. to his credit at Baring's. Bates shortly afterwards formed a partnership with John Baring (third son of Sir Thomas), and the American business rapidly fell into their hands. This connection lasted two years, at the end of which time they were both admitted partners in Baring Brothers, in which firm, in course of time, Bates became senior partner.
In 1854 a joint commission was proposed by the English and American governments for the final consideration of certain claims arising from the peace of 1815. Bates was chosen as appellant arbitrator, and succeeded in discharging the delicate functions of his office to the satisfaction of both governments. Some of his decisions contain compendious discussions of important questions of international law. The amounts in private claims run into millions of dollars.
Bates was a benefactor to the city of Boston, having practically founded the Boston Public Library as it now exists. The nucleus of a library, with a few books, had existed before, but in 1852, on receiving the report of a committee appointed to consider the question of raising a public library in the city, Bates at once offered to make a donation sufficient to enable the institution to be immediately established, and gave the sum of 50,000 dollars for the purchase of books, on condition that the city provided a suitable building for their reception. This sum was funded, and the interest only used for the purchase of books. He afterwards made a second donation of nearly 27,000 books, costing even more than the amount of his first gift. The library was opened in 1854; and the large hall of the building has been named after its benefactor the Bates Hall. With respect to this library, Bates remarks in one of his letters to the mayor of Boston, that his own experience as a poor boy convinced him of the great advantages of such an institution. He says: ‘Having no money to spend and no place to go to, and not being able to pay for a fire or light in my own room, I could not pay for books, and the best way I could pass my evenings was to sit in a book store and read, as I was kindly permitted to do.’
Bates married, in 1813, a member of the Sturgis family of Boston. An only son was accidentally killed when out shooting. His only daughter married M. Sylvan Van de Weyer, long the Belgian minister in London, and survived her father. He died 24 Sept. 1864, at the age of seventy-six.
[American Journal of Education, vol. ii. and vol. vii.; Article by G. Ticknor in North American Review, vol. xciii.; Lippincott's Magazine, vol. iii.; Boston Town Council Memorial to Bates.]