Explore the Remarkable Rotch Jones Duff House c 1834 New Bedford MA History Bites New England

Nowhere in all America will you find more patrician-like houses, parks and gardens more opulent than in New Bedford. One and all, they were harpooned and dragged up hither from the sea. Herman Melville, Moby Dick. Welcome to New Bedford. In 1834, William Rotch Jr. built this yellow mansion and coachman's house surrounded by a full block of formal gardens. Fortunes made in the whaling trade enabled many prosperous merchants to move from New Bedford's commercial waterfront to live in the so-called country. Today, the Rotch Jones Duff House is a lasting legacy of the great age of whaling. Each of the three families made their fortunes in the whaling trade and each family owned and occupied the house during the more than 150-year span that it served as a residence. In 1765, William Rotch Jr.'s grandfather, Joseph, transferred a portion of his whaling business from the island of Nantucket to New Bedford, recognizing the vast potential of the mainland's deeper harbor and greater access to materials and labor. By the end of the 18th century, all whaling interests of the Rotch family were consolidated in New Bedford. A contemporary described Rotch as a large man, his height nearly six feet, and broad and stout in person. The artist executed this portrait when Rotch was 87 years of age. The Rotch family in New Bedford built and outfitted whaling vessels, owned and operated trading ships, owned wharves and storehouses, made candles, and sold whale oil and bone. Among the Rotch's fleet were sailing vessels such as the Maria. These larger vessels accommodated onboard processing of whale blubber and longer voyages, which greatly increased profits. In 1767, Joseph Rotch launched the first locally built whale ship, the Dartmouth. In 1773, the Rotch's ships, the Dartmouth and the Beaver, were two of the three ships boarded during the Boston Tea Party. In 1785, William took over management of the New Bedford branch of his father's Nantucket-based whaling enterprises. He led the family business through its most challenging times, war, inflation, and economic panic, as well as its most profitable ones. Indeed, William's stature in the whaling industry paralleled his standing in New Bedford's civic and Quaker communities. The Society of Friends, more commonly known as the Quakers, believed that integrity, honesty, and ethical practices were not only good for business, but integral to sustained commercial success. The Rotch's success spearheaded the establishment and growth of other firms that supported the whaling industry, such as Samuel Leonard and Sons, shown in this painting. William Rotch Jr. and other community members established the Friends Academy in 1810, a school that admitted both Quakers and so-called acceptable children of other faiths. The New Bedford Friends Academy differed from other Quaker institutions by providing instruction in subjects such as ancient languages, philosophy, and elocution. Quaker meetings urged that none trade beyond their ability, nor stretch beyond their compass, and keep their word in all things. By all accounts, notes the House Museum, William Rotch Jr. held to this advice, thus cementing his credibility and enhancing his prosperity. Between 1800 and 1823, New Bedford's population increased sevenfold, a measure of the growth stimulated by the whaling industry. This retrospective portrait of the city shows William Rotch Jr. and his father among the tradespeople, carpenters, shipwrights, coopers, and more, whose essential skills supported whaling. Rotch is the heavyset man at the right of the stone post, while his father is in the horse-drawn carriage. In 1834, William Rotch Jr. and his second wife, Lydia Scott Rotch, opted to move up the hill away from the teeming wharves on the waterfront. They joined other prominent families on County Street who sought to escape the noise, odor, and congestion of the busy commercial district. By 1830, class and ethnic tensions had surfaced on the New Bedford waterfront. As the number of transient seamen and whaling industry laborers increased, vigilance committees, police, and moral improvement societies emerged to address the escalating criminal activities of the overcrowded waterfront. At the age of 69, William Rotch Jr., along with his father and brother-in-law, Samuel Rodman, was one of the three wealthiest men in New Bedford. William also continued to be actively engaged in the social and political life of his community. Like his father, who condemned the nation's new constitution as founded on slavery and on blood, Rotch publicly opposed slavery in America. He was the founder and first president of the New Bedford Anti-Slavery Society and successfully filed suit against two merchant groups for engaging in the slave trade in the 1780s and 1790s. This decorative table is presumed to have been purchased by Amelia Jones during travel to Italy in 1906. According to house museum records, Amelia gifted the table to Walter Pellington Windsor, then president of the First National Bank of New Bedford, in lieu of payment for banking services. It remains one of the most valuable items in the house museum's collection. William Rotch Jr. embraced a progressive Quakerism that pursued engagement with the world. His views, however, later brought him into conflict with his co-religionists, who denied him membership in the Society of Friends after his second marriage in 1829. Despite the split, Rotch continued to wear the traditional Quaker garb for the remainder of his life. The Rotch Jones Duff House was designed by Richard Upjohn, who, from 1839 to 1846, was the architect behind New York's Trinity Church. Between its construction in 1834 and its sale to the non-profit Waterfront Historic Area League in 1982, the property was occupied by only three families, each of whom kept the property and its grounds remarkably intact. Visits from family and friends were an important part of Rotch's social life. It was said of William that one of his special characteristics was his hospitality towards strangers coming to New Bedford, whether rich or poor, whom he entertained with simplicity and courtliness, wrote one 20th century source. The Rotch Jones Duff House was constructed by shipbuilders called shipwrights in 1834. Notice the curved freestanding staircase and curved walls reminiscent of wood curved in building whaling ships. Pictured is the bedroom and study of Amelia Jones. According to the House Museum, the Jones family bonded over the love of literature, and in the background is Amelia's bookcase, which is in the exact spot that she kept it when the space served as her bedroom and study. Amelia would live in the house for 84 years. She was, according to the House Museum, a woman of charismatic demeanor who loved the arts, family, and worthy causes. Among her many philanthropic endeavors, she funded Solimar, a hospital for disabled children, with a one million dollar gift. Amelia's father, Edward Coffin Jones, purchased the mansion in 1851 for $17,000. Raised in New Bedford, Jones invested in whaling vessels and, by the mid-century, was an agent and owned, in whole or in part, 16 whaling barks or ships. Nine months after moving into the mansion, Jones's wife, Emma Nye Chambers, gave birth to the couple's fourth daughter. In that same year, Mr. Jones's eldest daughter and wife both died of scarlet fever. During Amelia's lifetime, she witnessed many changes in New Bedford, including the demise of the whaling industry and the transition to an economy based on the textile trade. When the house was originally built in 1834, this room was divided into two small narrow rooms with no fireplaces. The Jones family moved into the house in 1851 with three little girls. The rooms were used for Elizabeth Lizzie Proust, who worked as a chambermaid, and cook, Jane Duffy. In 1936, Mark M. Duff, husband of Beatrice, purchased the house, continuing the mansion's maritime legacy. Mr. Duff's family business, David Duff and Son, initially handled whale oil and later expanded into coal and oil transportation. Mark and Beatrice Duff redecorated the house when they purchased it, as reflected in the current bathrooms and wall treatments on the second floor. The Duffs also landscaped the gardens with ornamental beds, reflecting pools and graceful walkways. Over 7,000 tulip bulbs were planted during the Duff tenure, which concluded in 1981. Like the former residents of the house, Mr. Duff's business holdings and influence in New Bedford were extensive. He was a leading Republican on the state and local level and the president of Merchants National Bank and the New Bedford Hotel.