The Bates & Co. Records document the business activities of Bates & Co., a 19th century Boston merchant shipping company. Materials include ship’s papers, personal and professional correspondence, financial records, bound account volumes, trade circulars, photographs, and ephemera. The bulk of materials were created by Bates & Co., its predecessor Nathan Bridge & Co., the firms’ business associates, and ships’ captains; the collection also includes personal papers from members of the Bates family. This collection has been divided into four series.

Series I. Nathan Bridge & Co. Records contains records from the merchant shipping firm that preceded Bates & Co. Nathan Bridge & Co. was managed by co-partners Nathan Bridge and John Douglas Bates. After Nathan Bridge’s death in 1830, surviving partner John D. Bates and clerk Adam W. Thaxter became co-partners under the renamed firm of Bates & Co. The bulk of the materials in this series were created by John D. Bates during his work for the company’s sugar trade in Cuba and Europe. Materials include ship’s papers, correspondence, and financial accounts. Ship’s papers are arranged alphabetically by vessel name; correspondence and accounts are arranged chronologically.

Series II. Ship's Papers contains ship’s papers created by or for Bates & Co. Materials include articles of agreement, manifests, protection certificates, bills and receipts, cost memos, sales accounts, charter parties, crew and passenger lists, bills of sale of registered vessels, correspondence, surveys and records of repairs, and consular protests and documentation of accidents at sea. Folders are arranged alphabetically by vessel name, and chronologically within each folder. A complete list of vessels named in the collection is available in Appendix I. Ship Index.

Series III. Financial Records and Correspondence includes all business records created by or for Bates & Co., and offers an expanded context for many of the shipments documented in Series II, as well as a cohesive look at business ventures that span multiple vessels. Materials include financial accounts, business correspondence not directly connected to a single ship, building and wharf leases, insurance papers, trade memos, vessel lists, trade circulars, textiles, and account books. General financial materials are arranged by subject or format; accounts and correspondence to or from specific individuals or companies are arranged alphabetically by name. All materials are arranged chronologically within each individual folder.

The collection documents all aspects of international trade throughout much of the 19th century. When considered together, the ship’s papers, accounts, and correspondence often piece together detailed records of voyages, commissions, and shipments. While the Bates & Co. records document activities aboard a number of vessels, the collection is particularly strong with regards to the Carrington (Ship), the Fanny (Bark), the Huntress (Bark), the Juniata (Bark), the Moses Wheeler (Ship), the Starr King (Ship), and the Western Continent (Ship). Materials in Series II and Series III offer particular insight into Bates & Co.’s business relationships with the Brothers Cramer, James Oakes, F.D. Williams of Williams & Co., and the Brothers Nottebohm.

A core strength of the collection lies in its documentation of the sugar triangle trade in the early and mid-19th century; both Nathan Bridge & Co. and Bates & Co. traded sugar and other goods between Havana and Matanzas in Cuba, St. Petersburg and Antwerp in Europe, and Boston and New York in the United States. In the 1850s and 1860s, Bates & Co. expanded their network to include ports in China, Japan, and Southeast Asia, and moved further away from the sugar trade as the international market shifted. Of particular note are the ship’s papers, correspondence, and accounts surrounding the ship Carrington, which documents the human trafficking that connected China and the Cuban sugar industry. In 1863, the captain of the Carrington took a charter to ship over 300 Chinese laborers from Macao and Hong Kong to Havana, with the intention that they become indentured laborers on sugar plantations in Cuba. Correspondence with F.D. Williams documents other ships engaged in human trafficking; details are included in the Scope & Contents for each series. These materials contain language and content that may be disturbing to users.

Series IV. Family Papers and Records contains the personal papers of members of the extended Bates family, as well as business records from family members who were not employed by Bates & Co. The series includes materials from John D. Bates, John D. Bates, Jr., William H. Gilman, Mary (Bordman) Bates, and other members of the Bates family. These materials include correspondence, household accounts, property deeds, photographs, bound volumes, and ephemera. Highlights include John D. Bates’ correspondence with his wife, son, and step-son; John D. Bates, Jr.’s household accounts for his estate in Center Harbor, NH; William H. Gilman’s records as Navy Paymaster for the U.S.S. Eastport and U.S.S. Vandalia; and Mary Bates’ household account books. Series IV also includes materials related to scrip from the Kaw Treaty of 1859, in which the United States government took 176,000 acres of land from the Kaw Nation and sold it; correspondence about the scrip is located in John D. Bates, Jr.'s papers. Materials in the series are grouped first by individual, then in folders by subject or format. Within each folder, materials are chronologically arranged.