Rotch family.

The Rotch family of Nantucket and New Bedford, Massachusetts, played a leading role in the American whaling industry through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Rotches were among the founders of New Bedford, Massachusetts, which became the world's busiest whaling port in the early nineteenth century. The children and grandchildren of family patriarch William Rotch (1734-1828) sent whaling ships around the world, traded with many ports of call, and enlarged their holdings through investments in warehouses, wharves, candleworks, and other enterprises.

From the description of Rotch family papers, 1808-1836 (inclusive). (Harvard Business School). WorldCat record id: 48505119