Elias Hasket Derby was born on August 16, 1739, in Salem, Massachusetts. He was the son of Richard Derby and his first wife, Mary Hodges. His father was a merchant in Salem, who built up a considerable trade with the West Indies and the Spanish Peninsula in the latter part of the Colonial period.
Elias Hasket Derby succeeded to the West Indies business trade built up by his father at about the outbreak of the Revolution. During the war, in common with other American merchants, he fitted out a number of his ships as privateers and the spoils brought in by these vessels, together with the proceeds of a number of successful trading voyages, made him at the close of the Revolution one of the wealthiest merchants in New England. He did not, however, thereupon retire to a life of ease, but taking advantage of the new circumstances embarked upon an extensive commerce to many parts of the world hitherto unvisited by Americans.
In 1784 he dispatched his ship Light Horse from Salem to St. Petersburg, Russia, with a cargo of West India sugar. This was the first vessel to display the Stars and Stripes in the Baltic. In 1785 he sent his ship Grand Turk on a trading voyage to the Cape of Good Hope and the next year dispatched her to the Isle of France in the Indian Ocean. From there she proceeded to Canton, China, being the first New England ship to reach the Orient. Encouraged by these pioneer voyages, Derby's vessels found their way to such distant ports as Manila, Batavia, Rangoon, Calcutta, Bombay, and Canton. But while he traded with all these ports and with the ports of Europe and the West Indies as well, his most lucrative trade was with the Isle of France, or Mauritius as it is now called, a small island in the Indian Ocean, where he exchanged the humble products of the New England farms for the exotic commodities of the East.
Toward the end of his career, he profited greatly through the situation created by the Napoleonic Wars, when neutral ships were in demand for the carrying trade. His success lay partly in his far-seeing initiative as a trader - he had the courage to embark in new fields of commerce and was ever ready to take advantage of changing conditions - and partly in the superior type of men which he employed as captains and supercargoes of his ships. As the vessels were often gone a year or more without their owner hearing from them, responsibility for the outcome of the voyage rested largely in the hands of the captain or supercargo. These men were therefore encouraged by Derby with large shares in the profits, and as a result many of them became wealthy. In fact, some of the principal family fortunes of New England were founded by men who sailed in Derby ships. Derby himself never went to sea, but he had, nevertheless, a thorough knowledge of ships and most of his fleet was built under his own supervision. Of all the vessels he dispatched to the ends of the earth, only one was lost.
Although Derby was one of the leading citizens of Salem and took an active interest in the welfare of the town, he never held political office. During the Revolution he gave freely of guns, ammunition, and supplies for the use of the Continental Army, and after the war he took an active interest in the original tariff acts. It was largely through his advice that the bonded warehouse system was adopted by the Government. He devoted practically his entire time to his business and the little relaxation which he allowed himself was principally of a domestic nature.
As he began to prosper Derby purchased a large farm on the outskirts of Salem where he experimented with many new plants brought by his ships from abroad. Although for the greater part of his life he lived in a house of modest proportions, in 1797 he built a magnificent mansion, the finest in Salem. The plans were drawn by McIntyre, the noted American architect of the period, and many of the elaborate furnishings for the house were brought from Europe and China; it was surrounded by stables and gardens. The owner, however, lived to enjoy it but two years. In September 1799, while still at the height of his career, he died, leaving one of the largest fortunes amassed in America up to that time.
On April 23, 1761, Derby married Elizabeth Crowninshield, thus uniting two of the leading merchant houses of Salem. The eldest, Elias Hasket Derby, Jr. , carried on the great business until the adverse period of the Embargo, when the Derby flag disappeared from the high seas.
