Background
Joshua Bates was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, United States on the 10th of October 1788, of an Old Massachusetts family prominent in colonial affairs.
Joshua Bates was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, United States on the 10th of October 1788, of an Old Massachusetts family prominent in colonial affairs.
Joshua was educated in his native town.
After several winters schooling in his native town, Bates entered the countinghouse of William Gray & Son in Boston. In 1809 he began business on his own account, but failed during the War of 1812 and again became associated with the Grays, then the largest shipowners in America, by whom a few years later he was sent to London in charge of their European business. There he came into relations with the Barings, and in 1826 formed a partnership with John, a son of Sir Thomas Baring. Two years later both partners were admitted to the firm of Baring Brothers & Company, of which Bates eventually became senior partner, occupying in consequence an influential position in the British financial world. In 1853-1854 he acted with rare impartiality and justice as umpire of the international commission appointed to settle claims growing out of the War of 1812.
He died in London on the 24th of September 1864. 'See Memorial of Joshua Bates (Boston, 1865),
During the Civil War, Bates's sympathies were strongly with the Union, and besides aiding the United States government fiscal agents in various ways, he used his influence to prevent the raising of loans for the Confederacy.
Bates married Lucretia Augusta Sturgis (1787 - 1863); she was the first cousin of Captain William F. Sturgis and of Nathaniel Russell Sturgis, both of Boston. Their daughter Elizabeth Bates married Belgian Prime Minister Sylvain Van de Weyer; their daughter Eleanor Van de Weyer married Reginald Baliol Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher; and their daughter, Sylvia Brett, married Charles Vyner de Windt Brooke, and became the last Rani of Sarawak. Another Bates' granddaughter, Alice Emma Sturgis van de Weyer, married the Hon. Charles Brand (4th son of Mr. Speaker Brand).