The Darby Family

Twelve Generations

Edward Darby arrived in Boston around 1650. His 12th-generation descendant, Jacob Richard Darby, was born in Waterloo, Iowa in 1987. Click or tap any name to read more.

A Timeline

Key dates from the earliest English records to Iowa, in chronological order.

1. Pre-Roman, East Midlands, England
   The River Derwent and the Celtic Place Name
   The earliest layer of the name comes from a Celtic root word for the River Derwent, meaning "valley thick with oaks." The Romans established a fort here called Derventio around 80 AD as part of their road network across the East Midlands. These are the geographic conditions that later produced the name your family carries.
2. 870s AD, Danelaw, England
   Danish Vikings Name the Settlement: Djura-by
   The Great Heathen Army of Danish Vikings swept through Lincolnshire and the East Midlands in 865 to 878 AD, establishing the Danelaw. They renamed the Roman settlement Djúra-bý, meaning "deer farm" or "deer settlement" in Old Norse. This is the direct etymological source of your surname. The Darby/Derby name is Danish Viking in origin. The settlement became one of the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw.
3. 917 AD, East Midlands
   Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Records "Deoraby"
   The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that Lady Æthelflæd of Mercia captured the borough called Deoraby in July 917, retaking it from the Danes. This is the first written record of the place name that became your surname. The Chronicle notes "there were also killed four thegns who were dear to her inside the gates." The town is recorded as divided by water, with the Viking Deoraby settlement on the north side.
4. 1066 to 1086, Lincolnshire and Derbyshire
   Norman Conquest: de Ferrers Granted 114 Lincolnshire Manors
   Henry de Ferrers, a Norman lord from Ferrières in Normandy, participated in William the Conqueror's invasion in 1066 and was granted 210 manors, with 114 concentrated in Derbyshire and Lincolnshire, the exact region where your family was living. The 1086 Domesday Book records "Derbei" as the town's name. Your ancestors in Leake and Leverton, Lincolnshire were living within the Ferrers feudal territory at this time, though they are not yet recorded by name.
5. 1138 to 1160, Lincolnshire and Derbyshire
   Earl of Derby Title Created; First Use of the Surname
   Robert de Ferrers was created the first Earl of Derby in 1138, taking the title from the same Viking town name that is your surname. Then between 1160 and 1182, the first recorded use of "de Derby" as a personal surname appears: Roger de Derby, documented in the Register of Antiquities, Lincolnshire, during the reign of Henry II. This Roger de Derby is recorded in Lincolnshire, the same county as your Darby Hall family. He is almost certainly a direct ancestor or close collateral relative.

Derby = Darby: the same word

Before 1200, there was no consistent English spelling. Scribes wrote what they heard. The city appears as Deoraby (917), Derbei (1086), and Darbye (1610 maps). The surname appears as both Derby and Darby through the 1600s in the same family's records. In British English, Derby is still pronounced "Darby" today. The two spellings are not two separate names. They are the same name, the same family, written down differently by different hands across seven centuries. Derbyshire simply adds the Old English word for county (scir) and means "person from Derbyshire." Darbyshire is the same thing with the regional spelling. Early American migrants from Darbyshire often dropped the suffix, and some American "Darby" families are shortened Darbyshires.

6. c. 1200, Lincolnshire, England
   The Name Appears in Lincolnshire
   The earliest Darby record: a pedigree noting that Nicholas Tamworth of Tamworth married Jane, daughter of Darby, of Leverton, Lincolnshire, around 1200. The name comes from Old Norse djur-byr (deer settlement), the place name for Derby, Derbyshire, recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as "Doeraby" in 917 AD.
7. 1346 to 1620, Lincolnshire
   Darby Hall, Leake and Leverton
   The family held Darby Hall, a large property in Leake and Leverton, Lincolnshire, described as "the residence of the family of that name who were considerable proprietors in this and the adjoining parishes for several centuries." Documented members span 1346 (Ralph de Darby of Bennington) through 1701 (Dymoke Darby, died at Leake). Memorials survive in the Leake church chancel floor.
8. 1623, London and New England
   First Darby in American Colonial Records
   William Darby of Dorchester, England petitioned the Council for New England on February 18, 1623, for a plantation at Cape Ann, which led to the settlement of Naumkeag (now Salem, Massachusetts). He also appears among Representatives to the General Court in England on October 12, 1629, placing a Darby at the founding moment of Massachusetts Bay Colony.
9. 1650, Surrey, England
   Agnes Derby's Will Names Edward Derby in New England
   Agnes Derby, widow of Augustine Derby of Bisley, Surrey, made a nuncupative will on May 20, 1650, proved June 1, 1650. She left money in trust to Henry Collier of Horsabell, yeoman: "He to pay Edward Derby, in New England, ten pounds when he shall come and demand the same." The conditional phrasing (Edward must actively claim it) suggests a nephew or more distant relation rather than a son; a mother typically would not word it this way. The key lead is Augustine Derby himself. If his baptism, marriage, and children can be found in Bisley St. John the Baptist parish records (indexed in IGI from 1561), his relationship to Edward will become clear. Bisley sits about 30 miles southwest of London.
10. January 25, 1658/59, Boston
    Edward Derby Settles at Weymouth, Then Boston
    Edward Derby came from Bisley, county Surrey, England, confirmed in the 1909 Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine. He first settled at Weymouth, Massachusetts, then removed to Boston. Boston vital records: "Edward Derby was married to Susanna Hook, January 25, 1659, by Richard Bellingham, Deputy Governor." He settled in Braintree, Massachusetts, where daughters Mary (born December 29, 1660) and Priscilla (born June 20, 1672) are recorded. He died in 1724, making him approximately 85 to 90 years old, a long life for the period. Since Augustine Derby was also from Bisley, Augustine was almost certainly Edward's older brother or uncle.
11. June 24, 1675 and March 26, 1676, Swansea MA and Pawtucket River RI
    Two Ancestors Killed in King Philip's War
    Jacob's ancestry includes two confirmed King Philip's War casualties within nine months, on opposite sides of the same conflict. William Salisbury (b. 1622, Llanrhaidr, Wales), ancestor through the Cynthia Salisbury line, was killed June 24, 1675 at Swansea with his son John after John fired on Indian looters of their home. They were the war's first casualties, memorialized on a Massachusetts monument erected 1912. Captain Michael Pierce (b. c.1615, Hingham, Kent, England), ancestor through Mary Pierce who married Martin Salisbury, was killed March 26, 1676 at Pawtucket River in "Pierce's Fight," one of the war's worst disasters. He led 52 colonists and 20 Christian Indians into a Narragansett ambush; nearly his entire force was killed. Both were English immigrants. Both died in the same war. Both appear in the family tree through Cynthia Salisbury who married Lyman⁶ Darby.
12. 1702, Dunstable, Massachusetts
    James³ Darby Born
    James³ was born April 30, 1702 in Dunstable, Essex (now Middlesex), Massachusetts. He later settled at Mortlake Society in Canterbury, Connecticut, one of the more active Separatist/Baptist communities in colonial New England. He married Eleanor Shepard (b. c.1701), daughter of Samuel Shepard (son of Ralph Shepard, London 1635) and Eleanor Whitney (daughter of John Whitney, Isleworth London 1635). Eleanor Shepard was therefore the granddaughter of BOTH Ralph Shepard and John Whitney, now confirmed in a primary source will document. The Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical Memoirs confirms Eleanor was "daughter of Samuel Shepard and Eleanor Whitney, her first ancestors in this country being Ralph Shepard, John Whitney, Baptist Smedley and Thomas Tarbell." The specific Whitney branch is now confirmed: Eleanor Whitney (b. c.1684) was the daughter of Deacon Joshua Whitney (b. July 15, 1635, Watertown MA; d. Aug 7, 1719; son of John Whitney of Watertown) and his third wife Abigail Tarbell (daughter of Thomas Tarbell of Groton, Massachusetts). Deacon Joshua Whitney's will dated April 17, 1713, proved October 6, 1719 at Groton, names "my five daughters now living, Mary Peirce, Elenor Shepard, Sarah Juell, Martha Williams, and Elisabeth Farnworth", placing Eleanor Whitney Shepard directly in a probate court primary source. Samuel Shepard and Eleanor Whitney lived in Plainfield, Windham County CT. Their daughter Eleanor Shepard (b. March 6, 1701, Plainfield CT) is confirmed by FamilySearch Connecticut Births. The Tarbell mention in the memoirs ("Thomas Tarbell") now resolves as Abigail Tarbell's father, Eleanor Whitney's maternal grandfather. A collateral note: Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin (b. December 8, 1765), descends from John Whitney through a brother of Deacon Joshua, making him a distant cousin of this Darby line. Source: Pierce, Descendants of John Whitney (1895); Will of Deacon Joshua Whitney, Groton MA (1713, proved 1719).
13. 1731 to 1813, Canterbury, CT and Cortland, NY
14. 1749 to 1777, Canterbury, Windham County, Connecticut
    Darby Siblings Marry Into the Cleveland Family
    Canterbury town marriage records reveal the full Darby sibling picture: William Darby married Abigail Cleveland (November 9, 1749), Ruth Darby married Samuel Cleveland (May 7, 1751), Jedediah Darby married Lucretia Cleveland (January 2, 1755), and Olive Darby married Daniel Bacon (April 27, 1777). Three siblings marrying into the same Cleveland family within six years shows how tightly bound these Canterbury Baptist families were. Eleazor⁴, born July 6, 1731, was the sibling who eventually led the migration to Cortland, New York.
15. 1731, Canterbury, Windham County, Connecticut
    Eleazor⁴ Darby Lives Through the Revolution
    Eleazor⁴ was born July 6, 1731 in Canterbury, Connecticut and was 44 to 52 years old during the Revolutionary War. Connecticut was "The Provisions State." He died January 31, 1813 in Cortland, New York, aged 81. Buried at Cortland Old Burial Ground. His Revolutionary War service is an open research question and the most direct path to SAR eligibility.
16. 1796 to 1806, Homer, New York
    Joseph⁵ Marries Anna Grow
    Joseph⁵ Darby married Anna Grow of Hampton, Connecticut in 1796. Anna (b. February 15, 1777) was the daughter of Thomas Grow, whose family settled Grow Hill in Hampton in 1723. She died June 30, 1806, aged 29, leaving three children: Delia, Lyman, and Thomas (your ancestor). Joseph remarried Asenath Tyler in 1807.
17. 1864, Cortland, NY to Clarksville, Iowa
    Thomas DeWight⁷ Moves to Iowa
    Thomas DeWight⁷ (b. November 23, 1842, Cortland, NY) married Frances Elizabeth Bement in 1864 and moved to Clarksville, Butler County, Iowa, the first Darby in Iowa. He died August 30, 1900 and is buried at Lynwood Cemetery, Clarksville, Butler County, Iowa (west edge of town on Highway C33, established 1883). His wife Frances Bement Darby (d. 1920) and their son Lucius + wife Amy Scott Darby are also buried there. Thomas and Frances share the cemetery with Samuel Lenhart + Margaret McMillan (1813-1895) and other Clarksville families. Thomas Darby Sr. (1802-1883) was born in Homer, Cortland County only four months after his family arrived by horse and wagon from Canterbury, CT. His mother Anna Grow died in 1806 when he was four; his father Joseph Darby remarried Asenath Tyler (1779-1852), who raised him. Eleazor⁴ Darby (1731-1813) is buried alongside son Joseph Darby + Anna Grow Darby in a small farm cemetery above the former John Keep County Home in Homer, NY. His son Lucius Edwin⁸ (b. 1868) became a Plymouth Brethren lay minister and farmer there.
18. 1896 to 1985, Clarksville and Nashua, Iowa
    Clarence Arthur⁹, Baptist Farmer
    Clarence Arthur⁹ (b. July 7, 1896) married Katie Sutter on May 10, 1917 in Charles City, Iowa. Katie was originally named Katrina Maria but had no birth certificate (born at home) and chose the name "Katie Darby," what she had always been called. Five children. Died August 28, 1985, Oak Hill Cemetery, Nashua, Iowa.
19. September 12, 1987, Waterloo, Iowa
    Jacob Richard¹² Darby
    The 11th American generation of the family, and the 13th or 14th from the English roots in Lincolnshire and Surrey. Six documented family lines: Darby, Grow, Shepherd, Whitney, Hooke, and Podhaski from the Polish highlands. Current residence: West Branch, Iowa.

The Connected Lines

The Darby name is the spine, but the branches run through Connecticut, London, Bristol, Hampton, the Polish highlands, Germany, and Switzerland. Every name below entered the family through marriage. These are factual findings from active research across each line.

Origins in England

Several branches of this family left documented records in England before emigrating. The Darby name appears in Lincolnshire as early as 1200. The Whitney line, confirmed through the Whitney Research Group, goes further back, to a Norman knight who came with William the Conqueror in 1066. Other lines came through London, Bristol, and Surrey.

Ella Podhaski's surname is a Polish topographic name meaning "from the Podhale," the highland plateau at the foot of the Tatra Mountains in southern Poland, near Krakow, in the Malopolska region. Polish immigration to the American Midwest concentrated in the 1880s to 1910s. Finding Ella's parents' village of origin would connect this line to Central European records and open a separate branch of research.

Erwin's Brothers and Sisters

Erwin Clarence¹⁰ Darby (b. 1924, Plainfield, Iowa) was the son of Clarence Arthur⁹ and Katie Sutter. These are his four siblings.

Collateral Relatives of Note

Family Arms

The armigerous Darby family of Benington, Lincolnshire, England. Benington is less than 20 miles from Darby Hall at Leake, where the family held land from at least 1200 AD.

What the shield means

Silver background (Argent)

The field of the shield is silver, the heraldic term for which is argent. Silver signifies sincerity, peace, and the enduring nature of the family line.

Black inverted V (Chevron sable)

The large inverted-V shape crossing the middle of the shield is a chevron, painted black (sable). The chevron is one of the oldest heraldic ordinaries. It signifies protection and the upholding of good conscience against adversity; a mark of those who defend and build.

Three black wheat sheaves with gold bands (Three garbs sable, banded or)

Surrounding the chevron are three garbs, the heraldic word for bound sheaves of wheat. They are black (sable) with a gold (or) tie around each bundle. One appears above the chevron; two appear below. Wheat sheaves were the natural charge of Lincolnshire agricultural gentry. The three garbs represent abundance from honest labor, the sustaining of a family through the land.

What sits above the shield

The crest: A red antelope's head, cut cleanly at the neck (erased gules), with gold mane, horn tufts, and antlers (maned, tufted, armed, and attired or). The antelope in heraldry represents the union of power and gentleness, fierce in defense, peaceful by nature. The red color (gules) signals martial courage.

The family motto

"Ut cunque placuerit Deo"

"Howsoever it shall have pleased God"

A declaration of submission to Providence. Whatever outcome God wills, the family accepts. It is not fatalism but faith: the same spirit that sustained the family through King Philip's War, the frontier, and two centuries of American life.

Sons of the American Revolution

The family record explicitly confirms eligibility: "Chester Chauncey Darby was eligible for membership in the Sons of the American Revolution through the Darby, Grow and Salisbury lines." Chester's eligibility flows through the same Joseph⁵ Darby as your direct line. America's 250th anniversary is July 4, 2026.

What We Still Need to Find

Two SAR paths are now confirmed: Thomas Grow (Private, Col. Parsons' 6th CT Continental Regiment, DAR #19525) and Nathan Salisbury (Private/Corporal, RI Militia, NSDAR 136111 and 17823). Edward¹ is confirmed from Bisley, Surrey, England, first settled at Weymouth MA, and died 1724. Canterbury CT marriage records revealed four Darby siblings. Augustine Derby named as Agnes's husband. These are the remaining open questions.

Find Your Connection

If you share Darby, Derby, Grow, Shepherd, Whitney, Sutter, Bement, or any other line on this site, you may be related. Use the tools below to find your branch, search the direct line, and connect through external databases.