(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
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John Perkins Cushing was born on April 22, 1787 in Boston, the son of Robert Cushing, a descendant of Matthew Cushing who came to America in 1638, and of Ann Maynard (Perkins) Cushing, daughter of James Perkins and sister of Thomas Handasyd Perkins.
Early in life he became a clerk in the mercantile firm of Perkins & Company, established by his two uncles, James and Thomas II. Perkins, for carrying on trade with China and the Northwest Coast.
In 1803, he accompanied Ephraim Bumstead, the eldest apprentice in the company, on a voyage to Canton. Bumstead was taken ill and obliged to return home, and Cushing was left, at the age of sixteen, to carry on the business in China.
When Thomas H. Perkins heard that Bumstead had died on the return voyage, he decided to go at once to China; but a letter from Cushing soon arrived, giving such a glowing account of the business that Perkins permitted Cushing to act as resident agent. In China - where he was known as “Kuhing, ” - he conducted affairs so ably that he was admitted to a partnership and became the most highly respected foreign merchant in the country.
Except for two short visits home, he remained in China for nearly thirty years, amassing a fortune which, for those days, was colossal.
He came back to Boston in 1830, broken in health, and erected a handsome mansion in Summer St. , surrounded by a wall of Chinese porcelain and administered, to the amazement of Boston society, by a staff of Chinese servants.
Not long after his return, he acquired a splendid estate in Watertown, outside of Boston, and built the finest conservatory in New England, which was thrown open freely to the public when the flowers were in bloom.
He had constructed for himself a sixty-foot pilot schooner, The Sylph, which, in 1832, won the earliest American yacht race on record, against the schooner yacht Wave, owned by John C. Stevens, of Hoboken, over a course extending from Vineyard Haven to Tarpaulin Cove.
He died at his home in Watertown, - now a part of the Town of Belmont, - and was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery.
(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
He was a modest and unostentatious man.
Quotes from others about the person
The Boston Transcript described him as “one of the most opulent and public-spirited citizens of Massachusetts. ”
John married Mary Louise, daughter of the Rev. John Sylvester J. Gardiner, rector of Trinity Church, Boston. Together, they were the parents of five children.
