03/11/2025
On this date, 211 years ago, Elizabeth Derby West was interred in her family’s tomb in Charter Street Cemetery. The eldest child of millionaire merchant Elias Hasket Derby and his wife, Elizabeth Crowninshield, Elizabeth was the child of two of Salem’s most powerful families. While a Derby by birth, Elizabeth seems to have mostly taken after her Crowninshield mother, at whose insistence the opulent Derby mansion was built, inheriting her love of fine things and desire for public recognition. In 1783, the 21 year old Elizabeth married Nathaniel West, a former privateer and employee of her father. This marriage was strongly opposed by the family, but once the couple had eloped, they had no choice but to accept it.
In 1799, Elias Hasket and his wife died, the same year they had completed their mansion in what is now Derby Square. Though the bulk of the Derby estate went to her brothers rather than her, she still received a significant amount of wealth from her father and Nathaniel was a well-connected merchant in his own right. Following in her mother’s footsteps, Elizabeth began furnishing a large estate in Danvers, on land now occupied by the Northshore Mall. She was described by some contemporaries as “vain” and did famously complain about her name’s placement at the end of the members list of her charitable society (the listing was alphabetical.)
By the end of the 18th century, the relationship between the Derbys and the Crowninshields was rapidly souring. Political and business differences between the two led to a taking of sides between the Federalist Derbys and the Republican Crowninshields. Elizabeth Derby’s funeral was not attended by members of the Crowninshield family, despite her being their sister, due to the ill will between the families. At the same time, the relationship between Elizabeth West and her husband also began to sour.
In 1803, after many open disputes between Elizabeth and Nathaniel, the couple separated. At the same time, Nathaniel West removed his name from a lawsuit brought by the Derbys against the Crowninshields, a sign that he was beginning to switch sides. In 1806, with the law more favorable than it had been, Elizabeth filed for divorce from her husband. The case of West v West was scandalous, Elizabeth bringing “all the sweepings of the brothels of Boston '' to prove her husband’s infidelity. Nathaniel was represented in court by the Crowninshield ally Joseph Story, who would soon be a member of the Supreme Court. Despite Nathaniel’s best efforts, the case went in Elizabeth’s favor, allowing her divorce and control of her family inheritance. (The fact that her brother had lunched with the judge prior to the verdict caused a stir.)
Though the Derby family had technically won, public opinion very much turned against them, as the West v West case seemed another example of Derby control over the local legal system. Elizabeth herself became a social pariah and her funeral in 1814 was attended only by her family. She left her Danvers estate to her three daughters, stipulating that it would never be returned to her ex-husbands hands. Despite all this, Nathaniel remained close with his children, remarried, and died in 1851 at 93.
