Keturah Derby - KETU2

Keturah Derby - KETU2

African descent

Jackie Dinan

Enslaved

Female

Southold

Estate of William Albertson

Biographical information excerpted from "Keturah" paragraph by J.W. Case, “Kedar and his Family” in Long Island Traveler, January 23, 1879.

Southold Town Records Liber E: 67, see URL southoldtownny.gov=>Weblink/Laserfiche=>Town Clerk>Town Record Books>Liber E 1818-1887>image 159/175 (manumission).

Death notice in the Long Island Traveler, December 19, 1872, page 2.

Legal notices placed in the Sag Harbor Express, April 10, 1879. Keturah's notice is on the left, Margaret's on the right.

1790–1793, a range calculated from her reported age (27 years) at the time of her manumission and reported age (82 years) at the time of her death.

December 6, 1872

April 22, 1820 (manumission certificate approved by the overseers of the poor). May 4, 1820 (approved manumission certificate recorded in town record book).

She was a daughter of Kedar (#1639) and Pegg (#1640). Census data confirms elements of J.W. Case's biographical information. She was working as a servant in the Samuel W. Young's household in Southold in 1850 (under the surname Albertson). In 1860, she was living with her sisters Eunice and Margaret in Greenport (using the surname Derby). In 1865 (NYS census), she was enumerated as Tura Derbey, living with her sisters Phillis and Margret. And in the 1870 Federal census, she was living with her sister Margaret (surname recorded as Darby).

According to court papers, Keturah wrote a will on July 28, 1870 which wasn’t probated until the death of her sister Margaret in 1879. Legal notices placed in the Sag Harbor Express in 1879, suggest that Keturah’s primary beneficiary of her 1870 will was her sister Margaret. When Margaret died in 1879, both wills were probated on the same day. Keturah’s secondary beneficiaries were identical to Margaret’s primary beneficiaries—children and grandchildren of their deceased siblings.