Elias Hasket Derby

• Born: August 16, 1739
• Birthplace: Salem Massachusetts
• Died: September 8, 1799
• Place of death: Salem, Massachusetts

American merchant

Derby contributed to the growth of commerce and prosperity in Salem, Massachusetts, while amassing the largest fortune in the United States in the eighteenth century. The privateers of Salem, many of them financed and owned by Derby, contributed significantly to the sea defense of the colonies during the American Revolution. After the war, duties imposed on imports from the east Indian trade provided revenue for a stable federal government.

Sources of wealth: Trade; shipping; privateering

Bequeathal of wealth: Children

Early Life

Elias Hasket Derby was born on August 16, 1739, in Salem, Massachusetts, the son of Richard Derby, Sr., a Salem sea captain and shipowner. Derby’s two brothers became sea captains, while he was trained as a merchant in his father’s counting house. At the age of fifteen, having studied naval architecture and maritime trade, he was already keeping his father’s accounts. Richard Derby, Sr., retired by 1760, sending his ships out under other captains, including his sons Richard, Jr., and John, and entrusting Derby with control of the land operations of the family business.

In 1762, Derby married Elizabeth Crowninshield. The couple moved into a brick Georgian-style house that Richard, Sr., built for them. Their home was the earliest brick house in Salem and one of the finest surviving examples of Georgian architecture. From the windows of this house, where his seven children were born, Derby could look out on the Derby Wharf and supervise the loading and unloading of his ships.

First Ventures

Shipping was an enterprising and profitable industry in coastal New England in the mid-eighteenth century. Able captains and shipowners were also traders, buying goods in one port to sell at a profit in another. The Derby ships carried New England products, such as lumber and fish, to the West Indies, where they would take on cargoes of molasses, sugar, and coffee, then sail on to Spain, Gibraltar, and Portugal for luxury goods, such as wine, furniture and, fine textiles. Shipping was a risky business. During the late colonial era, hostilities between the British and French interfered with the trade upon which Salem depended. French privateers in the West Indies captured many Salem vessels, including numerous Derby ships, selling the ships and their cargo and ransoming their crews. In 1760, Derby, his father, and his brother Richard Derby, Jr., were among the signers of a petition to the colonial governor requesting a convoy for protection of the commercial fleet.

Finding the British government’s tariffs and restrictions on colonial trade oppressive, the Derbys were among those who supported the movement for independence from Great Britain. Derby and Richard, Jr., were members of the Salem regiment whenhostilities broke out in 1775. Captain John Derby, sailing in a fast Derby ship, was the first to carry the news of the Battle of Lexington to London and to return to the colonies with the British response.

Mature Wealth

When war was declared, Derby was ready. His first privateer, the Sturdy Beggar, set sail in 1776, capturing several British merchant ships, selling their cargoes, and ransoming their crews. The Salem merchant fleet turned to privateering against the British in earnest. By 1778, privateering had become one of Salem’s principal industries, with larger and faster ships being built and armed specifically for the purpose of capturing British ships. The privateers were commissioned by the Provincial Congress to interfere with British commercial and naval operations, but the profits went to the shipowners. Derby underwrote more privateering ventures than any other individual in the American colonies. He was lucky; he lost only one ship during the revolution. He was also an innovator, bringing shipbuilders to Salem to construct the strongest and fastest ships. Privateering during the American Revolution offered employment for Salem’s men, provided scarce goods to the colonies, and contributed a considerable part to the American war at sea. Privateering during the revolution also made Derby a wealthy man.

When the war ended in 1783, Derby looked east for new markets, new ports, and new uses for his strong, fast ships. The traditional West Indian ports, controlled by the British, were now closed to the Americans. However, the Indian Ocean was now open to American vessels since they were no longer restricted by the British East India Company’s commercial monopoly. Derby was a leader in reinventing American commerce. In 1784, he sent the first American ship to St. Petersburg. Yankee ships began to venture farther east from bases in Cape Town and Mauritius, buying and selling cargoes of tea, spices, silks, and porcelain. By 1785, when he sent his first ship to China, Derby was already the wealthiest merchant in Salem. The ship Grand Turk had been built for him as a privateer in 1781; in 1785, it was one of the first American vessels to arrive in Canton.

In 1787, Derby launched his family in the India trade. A Derby ship was the first to fly the American flag in Calcutta harbor, and Derby ships were the first to carry cargoes of cotton from Bombay to China. Derby was the first Salem merchant to employ a supercargo (business agent) on his ships. He sent his son Elias Hasket Derby, Jr., known as Hasket, on the Grand Turk. Hasket spent three years on the island of Mauritius, selling the ship’s cargo of American products and then selling the Grand Turk itself, buying two more ships with the proceeds. Hasket ultimately returned to Salem with goods from India that were sold at an enormous profit at his father’s store on Derby Wharf.

Derby ships never took part in the slave trade, and Derby was considered a benevolent employer. He was reputed to provide fresh vegetables to his seamen, a provision that was unusual in his day. He also took care of the families of his employees who died or were disabled in his service.

In the postrevolutionary period, some of Derby’s wealth was spent on commissioning and building a number of Salem’s important Federal-style houses. In 1780, Derby and his wife Elizabeth had commissioned Salem carpenter Samuel McIntire to build them a larger house next door to their brick Georgian house on the waterfront. With Derby patronage, McIntire would become a significant New England wood-carver and architect. The Derbys never occupied the new house. Elizabeth Derby was an ambitious woman who desired a house in a newer, more fashionable neighborhood, away from the noises and odors of the commercial waterfront. An uptown mansion was purchased and restored with many McIntire details. At the same time, a grand mansion house was planned. Initially designed by Boston architect Charles Bulfinch, the final design was executed by McIntire. The ornate Derby Mansion was completed in 1799. Derby and Elizabeth occupied it for only a few months, as first Elizabeth and then Derby died in 1799. At the time of his death, Derby’s fortune was worth more than $1 million, earning him the title of America’s First Millionaire.

Legacy

Elias Hasket Derby’s legacy was his contribution to the development of an American style of architecture. His patronage gave Samuel McIntire the opportunity to design some of America’s most significant eighteenth century buildings. Derby also provided patronage to landscape gardener George Heussler, whom Derby hired in 1790. Heussler worked on both of Derby’s town residences and his farm, and he was responsible for a new style of beautifully landscaped gardens at the homes of the wealthy in Essex County, Massachusetts.

Derby died within a few months of moving into his grand mansion, and his eldest son, Elias Hasket Derby, Jr., inherited Derby’s farm and mansion. Derby’s son lived in the mansion for a decade before putting it up for sale and moving to Charlestown. The trade embargo and the War of 1812 had damaged Salem’s economy, and no buyer was found for the large and elaborate residence. In 1815, the mansion was torn down and the land given to the town for a permanent market, which eventually became Derby Square.

Bibliography

Bean, Susan S. Yankee India: American Commercial and Cultural Encounters with India in the Age of Sail, 1784-1860. Salem, Mass.: Peabody Essex Museum, 2001. The book’s first section, “Pioneering the India Trade,” discusses Derby’s role in the east India trade. Explains the nature of privateering and the Salem trade in the decades before and after the American Revolution, which are essential to understanding the source of Derby’s wealth.

Derby, Elias Hasket. Memoir of Elias Hasket Derby, Merchant of Salem, Massachusetts. 1857. Reprint. Salem, Mass.: The New England & Virginia Company, 2002. A reprint of an article that originally appeared in the February, 1857, issue of Hunt’s Merchant’s Magazine and Commercial Review. This unsigned biographical work makes use of letters and primary sources to reconstruct Derby’s genealogy, early life, role in pre- and post-Revolutionary War trade, privateering, and legacy.

Howard, Hugh. Dr. Kimball and Mr. Jefferson: Rediscovering the Founding Fathers of American Architecture. New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2006. This study of Fiske Kimball, historian and museum director who pioneered research into early American architecture, includes a chapter “Meanwhile in Massachusetts,” with information on the Derby family and the Derby Mansion in Salem. Clear and concise.

Kimball, Fiske. The Elias Hasket Derby Mansion in Salem. Salem, Mass.: Essex Institute, 1924. A twenty-page monograph followed by reproductions of the original plans and drawings of the mansion. A thorough study of primary documents, including letters, invoices, and drawings.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Mr. Samuel McIntire, Carver: The Architect of Salem. Portland, Maine: Southworth-Anthoensen Press, published for the Essex Institute of Salem, Mass., 1940. Reprint. Gloucester, Mass.: P. Smith, 1966. Kimball’s research into original drawings and documents is the basis for this still important source. Contains much information on the Derby houses and numerous photographs and drawings.

Lahikainen, Dean T. Samuel McIntire: Carving an American Style. Lebanon, N.H.: University Press of New England, 2007. Relies on Kimball’s 1940 volume on McIntire for much of its information. Includes an updated bibliography and format, as well as beautiful color plates and discussion of the Derby houses and furnishings.