Skip to main content

Contents

Joseph Coolidge IV opium smuggler married Thomas Jefferson's granddaughter. He played a key role for three major drug cartels.

j“Joseph Coolidge IV, Lewis Coolidge’s first cousin once removed, was a well-known China trader. While still in his formative years, he traveled widely and made the acquaintance of the writers Washington Irving and Lord Byron.  After Joseph Coolidge IV returned from Europe, he traveled in Virginia, where he met (and courted) Eleanora Wayles Randolph, the granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson.

The two were married May 27, 1825. Joseph’s first business experience was in a joint venture with his first cousin, Thomas Bulfinch, from 1825 to 1832 as “American goods commission merchants.” At that point, Joseph left to begin his lengthy China work as a clerk for Russell and Company in Canton, while his cousin Thomas Bulfinch turned to his life’s work writing such books as  Bulfinch’s Mythology , The Age of Fable , and The Age of Chivalry .

In 1834, Joseph Coolidge returned from China and became a partner in Russell and Company. He then returned to China and spent most of the next few years there as well as some time in India. In 1840,he left Russell and Company and was one of the founders of the trading company of Augustine Heard and Company, which had China as its focus.

ties to 3 drug trafficking cartels

With the outbreak of the Opium War between China and Britain shortly after the founding of Augustine Heard and Co., British subjects fled Canton, and with Joseph Coolidge IV as its principal Canton representative, Augustine Heard and Co. became the Canton agent of the giant English trader Jardine, Matheson, and Company.

In 1844 Joseph left China and retired on his earnings from his China trade. His family continued in international trade.” –   Lewis Coolidge and the Voyage of the Amethyst, 1806-1811  by Evabeth Miller Kienast and John Phillip Felt, p. 80-82“

significant family connections

Arriving at Hong Kong in 1838, he was welcomed by the principal partner of Russell and Company, John C. Green, and the junior members of the firm, Messrs. Abiel Abbot Low, Edward King, and William C. Hunter. His cousin and early backer, John Perkins Cushing, organizer of Russell and Company at Canton, had strongly recommended him to that firm.

Having made his fortune, senior  partner Green wished to return to the United States, and he felt that Forbes was the man to take his place. The arrangement went through despite the opposition of one member, Joseph Coolidge. Becoming general manager of Russell and Company, Forbes faced a crisis in the attempt of the Chinese government to drive out foreign-owned firms located in China. The Russell commission business had increased so rapidly in Canton that there was always a scarcity of partners capable of carrying their share of the burdens.