Preserved Fish (1766-1846) had an interesting life, but he’s best remembered for having an interesting name.
Preserved — pronounced with three syllables: preh-ZUR-ved — was born a Quaker in Rhode Island. (Eighty years later, he died an Episcopalian in New York City.) He was one of at least ten men in the Fish family to have the Quaker name Preserved, which referred to being “preserved in a state of grace” or “preserved from sin.”
As a teen, he went to sea. By the age of 21, he’d become the captain of a whaler. Later on, he “realized that a fortune could be made in selling whale oil, but not in securing it, and in 1810 he went into the whale oil business.” He also got involved in other types of business — he “acquired ships and organized packet lines to Liverpool and London,” for instance. Later still he became a banker, and, “in 1826, he was one of twenty-eight brokers of the New York Stock Exchange Board, the nucleus of the New York Stock Exchange.”
Along the way, he married three times: his first wife was named Abigail, his second was named Mary, and his third was also a Mary.
What are your thoughts on the name Preserved?
Sources:
- Fish, Lester Warren. The Fish Family in England and America. Rutland, VT: Tuttle Publishing Co., 1948.
- Schneider, Daniel B. “F.Y.I.” New York Times 7 May 2000.
- Preserved Fish – Wikipedia
