Deborah was the daughter of John Whealey and probably a woman named Mary, who may have been his second wife. She was baptized January 28 1771 at St George's Church in Hempstead NY with brothers Benjamin (c. 1761-1822; F-G# 54985493) and Peter, and sisters Hester and Phebe. The clerk recorded their last name as "Whaley" in accordance with its pronunciation, but the gravestone and land sales of her brother Benjamin, marriage record of her brother Peter, and family records of her son Jonathan Ingham Kinsey (1797-1856) all indicate that by the late 18th century the family was spelling their name "Whealey." Theirs was the only colonial-era family from what is now Nassau County to spell their name that way in that period. However Y-DNA testing has revealed that her father John was related (probably a brother) of the James Whaley and Ruth Wilson who married in 1755 in Hempstead. Autosomal DNA has confirmed that a direct descendant of Deborah's daughter, Euphemia Van Horn (1807-1883), is related to a direct descendant of Benjamin Whealey's son, Daniel Whealey (1798-1880).

According to Kinsey family records on April 5 1795 Deborah married Charles Kinsey, paper-making inventor (prototype of the Foudrinier machine), NJ judge and NJ Congressman (1817-19; 1820-21).

Charles and Deborah raised the following children:

Johnathan Ingham (1796-1856) m Maria Brower
Isaiah (1797-after 1860)
Charles Smith (1799-1882) m 1 Mary? 2 Lucinda Redman 3 Isabella Ray
Eliza (1801-1897) m Robert Redman
Maria (1802-1881) m 1---Bull 2 John Graham
Israel (c 1813-?) m Matilda --
Euphemia (1807-1883) m Jacob Van Horn
Sarah (?-?) m David Lewis?
Ann (c 1815-after 1860)

Deborah appears in the 1850 US Census Hohokus Twp, Bergen County NJ, living with her unmarried children Isaiah and Ann. Living next door is her son Israel and his family. The profession of both Isaiah and Israel Kinsey is listed as "paper maker," following their father's business.

Kinsey family records claim that Deborah died in 1856. Most likely she is buried in her husband's plot but there is no visible marker for her in this currently overgrown cemetery.

Sources:
Martha J. H. Kinsey, A family history (Cincinnati, undated) p 54-56
1850 US Census NJ Bergen Co Hohokus Twp
John Silvanus Haight, Adventures for God: St Georges Church Hempstead NY p 255

Brother Benjamin Whealey land sales:
Records of the Towns of North and South Hempstead, Vol. 6. ed. Benjamin Hicks (Jamaica NY, 1902) p 346
Town Records of Oyster Bay, Vol. 8. ed. John Cox Jr. (New York, 1940) p 370-371

*Deborah's older siblings, especially Benjamin and Peter who were at least 10 years old when baptized in 1771, may have been the children of an earlier wife of John named Sarah Wilson. (A John Whaley and Sarah Wilson married 1749 in Hempstead). If Deborah, an infant in 1771, was Mary's first child it would explain why her much older siblings and father were baptized along with her, namely that Mary, unlike the earlier wife, was more concerned to have the family baptized in the local Church of England. (St George's Church in 1771 was Church of England in 1771).