Preserved Fish

Preserved Fish ( ; July 14, 1766 – July 23, 1846) was an American businessman who was a prominent New York City shipping merchant in the early 19th century. He was an early broker of the New York Stock & Exchange Board.

Early life and education Preserved Fish was born in Freetown, Province of Massachusetts Bay, to blacksmith Isaac Fish and Ruth Grinnell Fish. His extended family, prominent in New York, later gave rise to Secretary of State Hamilton Fish and railroad magnate Stuyvesant Fish. He was descended from Thomas Fish, who settled in New England in 1643. There were at least ten other Fish family members with the Quaker given name Preserved, whose lineages are often confused. The name is pronounced with three syllables: or ; it refers to being "preserved (saved) from sin".

As a youth, Fish shipped to the Pacific on a whaler, becoming its captain at the age of 21. He soon realized that fortune lay in selling whale oil, not in harvesting it.

Career Fish prospered as a merchant in New Bedford, Massachusetts, but had a political squabble and left for New York. He, along with Joseph Grinnell, controlled a potent shipping firm named Fish & Grinnell – later Grinnell, Minturn & Co – which had its beginnings in his efforts to expand his whale oil market. He also was one of the 28 brokers of the New York Exchange Board, which later became the New York Stock Exchange. He was one of the leaders in the movement opposed to sabbatarianism in the United States. His first wife, Abigail Clark Fish, died in New Bedford while giving birth to a child who did not live. His obituary called him "a rough, obstinate, and eccentric man" but said he was "without guile" and "charitable", as well as a faithful friend.