This collection is made up of 41 checks, almost all of which are drawn on the Merchants Bank of New Bedford by ship agent, merchant, and bank director Andrew Hicks of Westport, Massachusetts. A number of these partially printed documents are checks of different banks, such as the Marine Bank and Bedford Commercial Bank, with the bank names crossed out and replaced in manuscript with "Merchants" Bank. Recipients of the checks include Andrew Hicks himself, insurance companies, suppliers, and various individuals. A few names include Joseph Hicks, Hathaway Brightman, "Steam Propeller", Weston Howland, Horatio G. Oliver, and others.
Many of the checks also include small, engraved images and vignettes of whales, ships and ship scenes, and a floundering whale capsizing a rowboat. The engraving of the dying whale and upturned vessel is identified as a product of "Charles Taber & Co., No. 45 Union & No. 2 Purchase St. New Bedford."
Andrew Hicks was born in Westport, Massachusetts, on June 17, 1799, to parents Barney and Sarah Cook Hicks. Andrew Hicks worked as a clerk in Adamsville, Rhode Island, opened his own shop, and later returned to his family farm at Westport. In 1836, he invested in the whaling industry, becoming a successful ship agent and merchant. He held interest in numerous whaling vessels, many of which continued operations well after his death. In New Bedford city directories, between the 1850s and 1880s he was located at the Walnut Street wharf, Hathaway & Luce's wharf, and Merrill's wharf in New Bedford, while living or spending time at Westport and at Adamsville, Rhode Island. He was civically active, serving as Justice of the Peace and briefly as a Republican representative for Westport. He was a wealthy bachelor when he died at Westport on February 4, 1895.
The Merchants Bank of New Bedford, Massachusetts, was founded in 1826 by independent investors, and it served not only wealthy financial and industrialist citizens but also persons of lower means. Commercial banks like the Merchants Bank, Marine Bank, and Bedford Commercial Bank provided a local source of capital for the thriving whaling industry in the 19th century. Andrew Hicks not only made use of the Merchants Bank, but he also worked as a financier, serving as the bank's director from 1854 until his death in 1895.
