Few Salem merchants could claim to be as notable or wealthy as Elias Hasket Derby. Found in the writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne as ‘King Derby’, he rose to prominence at the apex of Salem’s maritime ambitions, building one of the most discussed (and absent) homes in Salem history and establishing the Derby name as a permanent fixture within the city. Despite all this, he does not appear to have been a particularly ostentatious individual and his family tomb bears only the name of his father.
Elias Hasket Derby was born in 1739, the eldest son of bellicose merchant Captain Richard Derby and Mary Hodges. There was little doubt that Elias would follow in the maritime footsteps of his father, but where Richard is largely known today for his brash defiance of the British during the Revolutionary War, Elias was more unassuming, even if his eyes, one black and one blue, drew occasional comment. Elias did well working alongside his father and soon married Elizabeth Crowninshield, tying together the two influential families. In 1781, Derby would build his most famous vessel, the 300 ton Grand Turk, which he equipped with 22 guns.The Derbys chose the correct side of the Revolutionary war, fitting their vessels for privateering and loaning boats and supplies to the fledgling U.S. government. A few years later, the property of fled Loyalist William Browne was confiscated and conveyed to Elias Hasket, in recognition of his service to the war effort. Around this same time, Richard Derby died, leaving Elias in control of the family business. Richard’s will left three enslaved people to his children, and though Elias showed the typical New England disdain for the slave trade, these would not be the only enslaved people in his household over the course of his career.
While the Salem maritime economy was booming, it seemed to be booming most for Elias Derby. In 1785 he sent the Grand Turk to China, the first Salem vessel to make the journey. The investment paid off substantially and by 1789 he had completed Derby Wharf, the 130 foot long wharf begun by his father. His early domination of the trading economy made him one of the richest men in Salem, popularly conceived to be the first millionaire in American history. Rev. Bentley described his property as,“far beyond anything ever known in Salem.” As his wealth grew, Elizabeth Derby seems to have felt that their current home was not befitting someone of Elias’ economic stature and the Derby’s began to construct a mansion on the land once owned by William Browne. The house would take four years to complete, partially because Elizabeth kept enlarging the scope of the house. Elias was fairly hands off, writing to his London agents, “Mrs. Derby wants something to complete her house; she will write you. It is a business I know nothing of.”
In 1799, about $62,000 later, the Derby Mansion was completed, but it was scarcely after it was finished that Elizabeth Derby died. Elias Hasket Derby would follow her a few months later, having been sick with ‘angina pectoris’ and dying at age 60. The Derby family would never rise to the same heights. Derby’s sons were not able to resist the bursting of the maritime bubble and the family reputation was marred by the messy divorce of Derby’s daughter, all while relations with the Crowninshields (who didn’t attend either funeral) utterly collapsed. After several years holding on to the Derby Mansion, the Derby sons gave the property to the town of Salem, who built the Old Town Hall on the site in 1816.