Elias Hasket Derby
| Elias Hasket Derby | |
|---|---|
c. 1800–25 portrait by James Frothingham
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| Born |
August 16, 1739 Salem, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died |
September 8, 1799 Salem, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Occupation | Merchant |
| Known for | Owner of the first New England vessel to trade with China |
| Net worth | $800,000 at the time of his death (approximately 1/515th of U.S. GNP, equal to an estimated $11 million in 1996) |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Crowninshield |
Elias Hasket Derby (August 16, 1739 — September 8, 1799) was among the wealthiest and most celebrated of post-Revolutionary merchants in Salem, Massachusetts, and owner of the Grand Turk, the first New England vessel to trade directly with China.
Born in Salem, he was the son of sea captain and merchant Richard Derby (1712–1783), but never went to sea. At a young age he entered the counting house of his father and was in charge of bookkeeping there from 1760 until the start of the Revolution. By 1760, Richard Derby had a fleet of at least thirteen vessels engaged in coastal, West Indian and Southern Atlantic trade. The Derbys, like many in Salem at the start of the Revolution, both supported and profited from the Revolution. From all accounts, Elias Hasket Derby was heavily involved in equipping privateers or had shares in as many of half the privateers (one hundred and fifty-eight in all) which hailed from Salem. The Derbys' Grand Turk, launched in May 1781, became Salem's largest and most successful privateer, capturing seventeen prizes between 1781 and 1782. Even before the close of the Revolution (Richard Derby died in 1783) Elias was trading on his own and in partnership with his brothers. By the time peace was declared, Derby's contemporaries claimed that in all of New England his fortune was second only to the Cabots of Beverly.
In probably one of his many interactions with the privateers both out of Salem directly, of which there were many during the Revolutionary war, on August 19, 1776 Elias Hasket Derby acted as a proponent merchant agent on behalf of Commander/Captain Joseph White and his marines of the sloop Revenge in a prize case regarding the capture of the brigantine Anna Maria, a British vessel laden with a variety of goods.
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