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

Family and career

He was descended from Francis Peabody of St. Albans, 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 Topsfie ...

. 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 the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

he was an officer on

privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding 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 o ...

s, and acted with credit as second officer of the

letter of marque A letter of marque and reprisal () was a Sovereign state, government license in the Age of Sail that authorized a private person, known as a privateer or French corsairs, corsair, to attack and capture vessels of a foreign state at war with t ...

''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, United States, located on the North Shore (Massachusetts), North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem was one ...

between the embargo of 1807 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 l ...

''Leander'' tons, built at Salem in 1821, made twenty-six voyages to Europe, Asia Minor, Africa, East Asia and south-east Asia 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, especially at the port of Baltimore, Maryland. An early form of clipper, the name is most commonly applied to two-masted schoone ...

. Built at Salem for a privateer in 1814, she was purchased by Mr. Peabody for US$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, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies 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, 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 list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

.Hunt, F.

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

''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 ( , ; , Jawi script, Jawoë: ; Van Ophuijsen Spelling System, Old Spelling: ''Atjeh'') is the westernmost Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is located on the northern end of Sumatra island, with Banda Aceh being its capit ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

) 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 ...

. One of Peabody's descendants was Augustus Peabody Gardner.Gardner, Frank A MD

933 Year 933 ( CMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Spring – Hugh of Provence, king of Italy, launches an expedition to Rome to remove the Roman ruler (''princeps'') Albe ...

''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 18th-century American merchants

Joseph Joseph is a common male name, derived from the Hebrew (). "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 modern-day Nordic count ...

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