This is taken from a manuscript I am working on titled The Descendants of Capt. Jeruel West and Deborah Shaw of Frog Alley, Tisbury. If you have any additions, corrections, or suggestions, please email me!
ALBERT C. WEST was born on 10 Jun 1796. He married (1st) SARAH C. "Sally" MERRY, daughter of TIMOTHY MERRY and ELIZABETH MERRY, on 27 Mar 1823 in Tisbury. He married (2nd) ELIZABETH A. "Betsey" LUCE, daughter of HOVEY LUCE and NANCY CLIFFORD, on 24 Feb 1859 in Tisbury. He died on 19 Sep 1864 in Tisbury, at age 68, of "Apoplexy." (This is how the Gazette reported his sudden death: "Mr. Albert West was found dead, on Monday last. He was a branch pilot, living near the entrance of Holmes Hole harbor. The United States Sloop-of-war Brooklyn was passing by, on her way from Mobile to Boston, for repairs, when he, with other branch pilots, as is the custom with them, gave chase in his boat, but failed to gain the berth, being beaten by a more vigorous boatman. Having given up the chase, he stepped forward for some purpose, when he fell dead in his boat, and was thus found. He has been troubled in times past with heart disease, and his death was probably caused by over exertion.") He is buried at Village Cemetery, Vineyard Haven.
He was described in three crew lists as being about 5' 6" tall, with a light complexion and dark brown hair. His first recorded whaling voyage was on the Ship Winslow of New Bedford, which left 7 Oct 1817 and returned 12 Jan 1820. Following this, he sailed on the Brig Juno of New Bedford from 6 May 1820 to 9 Jan 1822(?); the Ship Marcia Theresa of New Bedford which sailed on 26 Jul 1824; the Ship Heroine of Fairhaven from 23 Jun 1829 to 8 Jun 1830 (or 1831?); and on the Ship Martha of New Bedford from 16 Aug 1830 to 22 Nov 1831.
He appears on the tax lists between 1827 and 1831 in Tisbury, and in the census of 1830 in Tisbury with his first wife. In the 1830 Frog Alley deed he is referred to as "Albert West ... of Tisbury, mariner."
On 22 Aug 1836 "Albert West of Tisbury" bought a house lot for $60 from his father-in-law, Timothy Merry, located to the north of Holmes Hole village, adjacent to the harbor and the "Proprietors Cartway" [probably Hatch Road in Frog Alley.] In the 1838 Tisbury tax list, he was also noted as being a boat owner. He and Sarah appear on the census of 1840 in Tisbury.
On 12 Nov 1842 Albert West ("of Tisbury, mariner") and his
wife "Sally" sold their house lot on the harbor for $50 to William
H. Cleveland, and by 28 Apr 1845 he was residing in a house owned by William
C. Downs on William Street (immediately north of the Methodist Church lot.)
He appeared on the Tisbury census of 1850, aged 53, "mariner,"
and in the Tisbury census of 1855, aged 58, "pilot", with his
wife and ten-year-old "Ellen P. West." (Who is this??). He was
called a Tisbury "pilot" in his 1859 marriage record. He appeared
on the Holmes Hole census of 1860, aged 62, "pilot," and was again
called a Tisbury "pilot" in his 1861 will. His probate records
call him a "mariner," his death record calls him a "Pilot,"
and the Gazette called him a "branch pilot" at the time
of his death in 1864.
SARAH C. "SALLY" MERRY was born on 12 Sep 1804 in Tisbury. She is represented in the 1830 and 1840 Tisbury census entries of her husband Albert West, and appears on the Tisbury census of 1850, aged 45, with her husband. She appeared on the Tisbury census of 1855, aged 52, with her husband and "Ellen P. West." (Who is this??) She died on 28 Aug 1858 in Holmes Hole, aged 53, of "Annurism and Parilysis," and was buried in Village Cemetery, Tisbury.
There are no known children of ALBERT C. WEST and SARAH C. MERRY.
ELIZABETH A. "BETSEY" LUCE was born in November 1810 in Tisbury. She married MOSES CROSBY, (son of John Crosby and Mary Luce) on 30 Jul 1842 in Tisbury. He was twenty-seven years her senior, and they had at least one son, James E. Crosby (born 27 Jul 1843 in West Tisbury) before Moses' accident in 1844. Betsey appears as a 39-year-old widow on the Tisbury census of 1850 living with her five-year-old son, and on the Tisbury census of 1855, aged 45, with her parents and son. She was called a Tisbury resident at the time of her marriage to Albert West in 1859. She appeared with Albert on the Holmes Hole census of 1860, aged 39, and as a widow on the census of 1865 in East Parish, Tisbury, aged 60, "nurse," living with William and Nellie Berry and Mary Crosby. She died on 17 Mar 1867 in New Bedford, MA, aged 56, of consumption. (Her death record calls her a resident of 78 S. Second St., New Bedford.) She was buried in Village Cemetery, Tisbury.
(Moses Crosby was born 1 Jun 1783. He married (1st) Lucy Pease 25 Dec 1806. He died of an "accidental discharge of a gun" on 2 Oct 1844, aged 61. His death record calls him a "farmer.")
There were no children of ALBERT C. WEST and ELIZABETH A. LUCE.
1800 U.S. Census, Dukes Co., MA. (microfilm).
1810 U.S. Census, Dukes Co., MA. (microfilm).
1820 U.S. Census, Dukes Co., MA. (microfilm).
1830 U.S. Census, Dukes Co., MA. (microfilm).
1840 U.S. Census, Dukes Co., MA. (microfilm).
1850 U.S. Census, Dukes Co., MA (National Archives microfilm and extract of enumerator's copy).
1855 Massachusetts State Census, Dukes Co., MA. (LDS Microfilm).
1860 U.S. Census, Dukes Co., MA (Tisbury). (National Archives microfilm).
1865 Massachusetts State Census, Dukes Co., MA (Tisbury). (LDS Microfilm #0953970.).
Banks, Charles Edward, M. D., The History of Martha's Vineyard, Vol. III (Edgartown, MA: Dukes County Historical Society, 1966 (originally published c. 1925)).
Civil Death Record Ledger, 1855-1889. Tisbury Town Hall, Tisbury, MA.
Civil Marriage Record Ledger, 1853-1954. Tisbury Town Hall, Tisbury, MA.
Crew List Extract Card Catalog. New Bedford Free Public Library Whaling Collection, New Bedford, MA.
Deaths Recorded in the New Bedford Mercury 1845-1874 (New Bedford, MA: New Bedford Free Public Library.)
Deeds, Dukes County Courthouse, Edgartown, MA.
Probate of Albert West (Docket I./1325) Dukes County Court House, Edgartown, MA.
Randall, George, Marriages Recorded in the New Bedford Mercury 1845-1874 (New Bedford, MA: New Bedford Free Public Library, 1915).
Registration of Massachusetts Deaths (microfilm at New Bedford Free Public Library)
The New Bedford Daily Mercury (New Bedford, MA.) (microfilm at New Bedford Free Public Library)
The Vineyard Gazette (Edgartown, MA); (microfilm at Vineyard Haven Public Library)
Tisbury Property Valuations and Taxes, 1826-1850. (LDS microfilm).
Village Cemetery Gravestone Inscriptions. Vineyard Haven, MA.
Vital Records of Tisbury Massachusetts to the year 1850 (Boston,
MA: NEHGS, 1910).