Submitted by: Vonda Lee Heverly
Sources: quoted in text

Richard L. Kearby was born November 10, 1784, probably in Fayette County, Kentucky. This portion of Fayette County became Jessamine County in 1799. He was the sixth son of Hawkins and Pricilla (Campbell?) Kearby. Richard first appeared in the tax rolls of Jessamine County in 1806, and remained there until 1813. Some of the intervening years are unreadable, but it is presumed that he maintained his residence there during that time. Richard Kearby married Nancy Jane Dean on January 7, 1812, in Jessamine County. Nancy was the eighth child of of James Dean and Patience Holeman, and she was born June 8, 1794 in the part of Fayette County, Kentucky that later became Jessamine County.

In the early 1800's, Richard's siblings began moving into Indiana, primarily Orange County. Following Hawkins Kearby's death in September 1814, Richard's mother Pricilla joined her children in their migration north. Records of Richard Kearby in Orange County are scant. In the flyleaf of the first marriage record book of Orange County, there is a notation that he was sworn in as constable on April 10, 1816. It is believed, and a search of land records would most likely prove, that Richard settled on the southern edge of Orange County, and possibly owned land in Dubois County, which lies just south of Orange. From Wilson's "History of Dubois County, from Its Primitive Days to 1910", Richard Kirby was sworn in as Justice of the Peace on September 8, 1830. He again held this position on November 29, 1836, his name then spelled Kerby. It is noted that he also served as commissioner. Richard appears in both the 1830 (p. 119 Columbia Township, Richor Kerby) and the 1840 (p. 622, Richard Kerby) federal censuses of Dubois County, Indiana.

In Wilson's "History" we also find a clue as to Richard's politics. A personal recollection by Goodlet Morgan recalls that Richard Kirby was one of only three men who voted for William Henry Harrison in the election of 1836. The 36 other votes were cast for his opponent, Martin Van Buren. Richard and Nancy then appear in the 1860 census of Orange County in Newton Stewart, Jackson Township, with one child, Margaret. In 1868, Nancy died, and was buried at Moore's Ridge Cemetery near French Lick, in Orange County. A Richard Kerby then shows up in the Dubois County 1870 census index, Columbia Township, p. 45, but this has not been checked to verify that it is the correct Richard. Richard L. Kearby died in May 1877. No day is given on his stone. He is buried next to his wife Nancy at Moore's Ridge.