He was born in North Fairhaven, Master of Arts (now Acushnet) in 1812. Gideon Nye, known as Gideon Nye, Junior., was a 7th generation descendant of Benjamin Nye, the founder of the Nye family, who settled in Sandwich, Massachusetts, in 1637. His father, Gideon Nye, was born in 1786 and died in 1875.
His mother, Sylvia S. Hathaway, was born in 1790, and died in 1883.
Nye went to China in 1831, where he worked for various companies in the East Indian and Chinese trade. In 1843 he opened the House of Nye, Parkin & Company In 1851 the firm name changed its name to Nye Brothers & Company and operated until 1856.
Nye Brothers suffered a collapse in 1856 after over-investing during a down market.
He was an eldest child. Mr Nye was married in 1846, to Mary East. Washburn, who died in New York in 1870.
Their only child was a daughter, born in Paris, France in 1846, Ellen East. Washburn. She died in Brooklyn, New York, in 1860.
Nye was a merchant in China for over fifty years and the American Vice Consul at Canton (now Guangzhou) for the last ten years of his life.
He was known as one of the oldest foreign residents of Canton, having spent 55 years in that city since his arrival in 1831. He died in the city on January 25, 1888 and afterwards "the flags of the consulates, custom house and foreign ships in port were at half mast two days in token of public esteem and sorrow." Nye purchased a large collection of valuable paintings in England between 1845–1850, which were exhibited in New New York Attempts were made to keep his collection intact, but it was dispersed to locations such as the Metropolitan Museum of Artist
The paintings were considered important American artistic treasures of the time.
He was a scholarly man with a reputation for integrity, active as a Vice President of the Medical Missionary Society, and as a corresponding member of the American Geographical Society.
