Ezra Weston II (November 30, 1772 – August 15, 1842), also known as King Caesar, was a prominent shipbuilder and merchant who operated a large maritime industry based in Duxbury and Boston, Massachusetts.

His father, Ezra Weston I, began small scale shipbuilding operations in Duxbury in 1763 and eventually came to be known as "King Caesar" for his success in business.

When his father died, Ezra Weston II became sole owner of the firm and continued to increase its scope of shipbuilding and international trade.

Senator Daniel Webster, during a speech in Saratoga Springs, New York, made the claim that Weston was "the largest ship owner, probably, in the United States.

[5] From 1809 to his death in 1842, Weston resided in a Federal mansion known as the King Caesar House, which still stands and is operated as a museum by the Duxbury Rural and Historical Society.

His father began building small vessels on the shore of Powder Point in Duxbury in 1764 and the modest firm, "E. Weston," soon came to encompass merchant trade.

Well educated and a lively socialite, Jerusha was a descendant of Plymouth Colony governor William Bradford and other Pilgrim settlers.

As evidenced by a sharp increase in shipbuilding and international trade, Ezra II had more ambitious goals, a broader vision for the firm, and the managerial skills to achieve success.

[13] Weston transferred much of the firm's administrative and financial activities to Boston over the course of the early 1820s, representing one of the first major operational changes after his father's death.

[13] Weston also expanded the firm's operations by hiring a talented, young master carpenter, Samuel Hall, to superintend his shipyard.

[19] By the 1830s, the Weston firm was shipping large cargoes of cotton from ports in the southern United States, including New Orleans and Mobile to the textile mills in Liverpool, England.

The brothers ceased shipbuilding immediately but continued to operate the remaining vessels of the Weston fleet in merchant trade for 15 years.

[17] While owned by Weston, the brig Smyrna, launched in 1825, was the first United States vessel to enter the Black Sea under a special permit from the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

The brig Messenger, launched in 1834, was also sold to a whaling merchant and, in 1862, became part of the infamous Stone Fleet sunk in Charleston Harbor by the United States Navy in hopes of obstructing the Confederate port during the Civil War.

According to tradition, with shipyards inactive, many ship carpenters sought alternative work and merchants such as Ezra Weston gave them employment in building elegant new houses.

[32] The King Caesar House passed to Dr. Hermon Carey Bumpus, former director of the American Museum of Natural History in New York.