William Gray (merchant)

William Gray (born July 8, 1750 in Lynn , † November 3, 1825 ) was a merchant and shipowner from Salem in the US state of Massachusetts , where he founded an insurance company in 1803.

Origin and family

Wiliam Gray (1807) after a painting by Gilbert Stuart

Wiliam Gray Jr. was born on July 8, 1750 as the eldest son of Abram Gray and Lydia Calley in Lynn, his grandfather Wiliam Gray Sr. was a farmer and one of the founders of shoe manufacturing in the Merrimack River valley .

On March 29, 1782 he married Elizabeth Chipman (1756–1823), their children were:

• Wiliam Rufus (born June 23, 1783)
• Henry (baptized August 22, 1784)
• Lydia Maria (baptized February 5, 1786, died May 22, 1786)
• Eliza (baptized April 18, 1787, died January 25, 1791)
• Lucia (born December 30, 1788)
• Francis Calley (born September 19, 1790)
• John Chipman (born December 16, 1793)
• Ward (baptized January 15, 1797, died 1798)
• Horace (born August 25, 1800)

William Gray died in great esteem on November 3, 1825 at the age of 75. Initially buried in St. Pauls Church, he and his wife were later reburied in Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Career as a businessman

His parents moved to Salem between 1760 and 1762, where he started as an apprentice in the trading company of Samuel Gardner. After completing his training, he moved to the trading company of Richard Derby Sr., father of Elias Hasket Derby, as an accountant . He contributed £ 10 to equip the ship that carried the message of the British defeat at Concord and Lexington at the beginning of the American Revolutionary War to Great Britain - it belonged to his employer .

From 1778 onwards, transactions for one's own account are proven. Since there were already two other dealers with the same name at that time, he used Wm. Gray Ter as his signature - also during his political career . (for Tertius). When the Salem merchants founded Essex Bank in 1792, Gray was elected its first president. At that time, he and his partners were one of the city's most successful traders and engaged in trade in East and South Asia. Due to growing activities from the port of New York , the company was close to relocating to this city in 1794, but initially remained in New England .

At the end of the 18th century, Gray broadened his economic activities beyond maritime trade , in 1797 he became co-owner of the Salem and Danvers Aqueduct, in 1799 he became director of the Essex Bridge Company. In 1803 he was a co-founder of the Essex Fire and Marine Insurance Company, the first insurance company in Salem. Notwithstanding this, maritime trade remained of great importance to him, of the 132 ships of various sizes registered in Salem for overseas trade in 1806, almost a quarter belonged to Gray.

In the winter of 1810 he became president of the troubled Penobscot Bank in Maine, which was then part of Massachusetts .

During the continental blockade , he supported the policy of the federal government, which refused to break the blockade . Instead, until the repeal of legal provisions to the contrary in March 1810, his main focus was on trade with Asia and with Russia.

When he moved his business to Boston in 1809 due to the political campaigns of the federalists, his fortune was estimated at the then unimaginable sum of three million US dollars, he owned 15 large merchant ships, 7 barques , 13 brigs and a schooner .

Even in the years after the war of 1812 Gray continued to operate his trading company, the last registration of a ship in his name took place in the year of his death in 1825; During his lifetime, 181 merchant ships of various types were registered in his name. In addition to trade between the United States and Europe, the focus of his business activities during these years was, in particular, the exchange of goods between the Mediterranean region and India.

William Gray was one of the first American ship owners who chose almost all important ports on the east and Gulf coast as starting and ending points for their voyages; he overcame his company's fixation on its home port, which enabled him to make additional profits.

From 1816 to 1821 he was a director of the Boston branch of the United States Bank .

Political career

He became a member of the Salem Militia , when hostilities broke out, he marched under the command of Colonel Timothy Pickering to Lexington, where on April 19, 1775 there was an exchange of fire with the retreating British British. In the election of the officers of the Third Company of the Militia in 1776, Gray was elected Second Lieutenant (Unterleutnant).

For the first time in 1783 William Gray appeared politically, he was elected to the city council; In 1787 he was appointed as a delegate to the Massachusetts State Convention, which met in January 1788 to vote on the American Constitution . Despite initial rejection and the negative attitude of the people, the assembly accepted it after a long discussion with a majority of 19 votes - including the Grays.

For the year 1792, William Gray is running as a candidate of Essex County for the Senate of the State of Massachusetts.

With the end of the presidency of George Washington , relations with France deteriorated considerably as a result of the XYZ affair , so that acts of war , in particular the detachment of ships, took place. Since the federal government had scarcely any funds to finance a fleet, private individuals were given the option to build and operate warships. William Gray was elected chairman of the committee founded on October 26, 1798 for the construction of a warship by the Salem merchants. The donation total of 74,400 US dollars was used to build the Essex , which was launched on September 30, 1799 and was to be used in the British-American War of 1812, since the Franco-American hostilities had already been concluded on September 30, 1800 by means of a peace treaty ended.

For the 1807 elections he was set up by the federalists , he sided with the federal government in the vote on a resolution on the Embargo Act . The turmoil caused by the New England states' negative attitude towards this federal law culminated in a meeting in Salem on October 26, 1808, in which William Gray again sided with the republican federal government against the prevailing federalists. Banned by the majority of Salem's other merchants for this attitude, he moved his place of business to Boston in 1809 .

Shortly thereafter, he left the federalists and was put up by the Republicans as a candidate for lieutenant governor of the state alongside the gubernatorial candidate Elbridge Gerry . In the election he beat the incumbent by just over 3,000 votes; in the 1811 election, both candidates were re-elected. For the election of 1812 Gray declined to run due to health problems, but stood together with Samuel Dexter for the campaigns 1814 and 1815, in which they were subject to the federalists. The candidacy of the Republicans proposed to him in 1816 for the office of governor of Massachusetts, he rejected.

During the war of 1812 he equipped the frigate Constitution at his own expense and donated $ 100,000 to repair it and defend the country.

In the years 1818 to 1820 he was the candidate of the now functioning as Democratic Republicans for election as Senator of Suffolk County for the Senate of Massachusetts, but he was subject to the federalist candidate.

In the years 1820 and 1824 he was elected as the electorate of the state of Massachusetts for the election of the president, his support was James Monroe and his personal friend John Quincy Adams .

literature

• Edward Gray: Wiliam Gray of Salem, Merchant . Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston / New York 1914