William Vannah Taylor Sr. (1790 - 1872)

Born 1790 in Yorktown, York, Virginia, United States

Husband of Frances McCoy (Henderson) Taylor — married 21 Jun 1814 in North Carolina

Descendants

Died 7 May 1872 at about age 82 in Memphis, Shelby, Tennessee, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Karen Hodges [send private message]

Biography

William was born about 1790. William was the child of Nathaniel Taylor and Lucy White. William passed away in 1873. ^[1]

Birth

Birth:

Date: 1790

Place: Yorktown, VA

Death

Death:

PROOF proven

Date: 7 MAY 1872

Place: Memphis, Shelby County, TN

Note

According to Goodspeed's "History of Shelby County, Tennessee" in its biographical index for Julius A. Taylor, Dr. William V. Taylor was assistant surgeon in the United States Navy during the War of 1812. He practiced medicine for sixty years and died in 1872. After his marriage he lived in North Carolina until 1810, then at LaGrange, TN until 1836, then at Holly Springs, MS until 1848, and finally in Memphis until his death.

He was one of the founders of the Finishing School at Holly Springs, MS where many young ladies of the Ruffin and White families attended prior to the Civil War.

A letter to the Union Provost Marshal was written by Dr. Taylor in 1863. It is online at http://freepages.military.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bldr/doctor.html

Here is its content:

Dr. William V. Taylor - Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis, June 13, 1863

General,

I live and have lived for many years in the neighborhood of Memphis outside of the Corporate limits of the City. As I suppose your General Order No. 65 will soon be enforced in my Precinct, I now ask to be empted from taking the Oath of Allegiance Inscribed in it.

I am a practicing physician and dependent upon my professional earnings for support. I am nearly 73 years old and my wife is only a few years younger. She has lately had the misfortune to break her arm, and is now fully disabled. A lady friend who has for many years been a member of my family is now sinking rapidly under pulmonary consumption, and confined to her bed. I would willingly leave Memphis is I could; but besides the obstacles to remove which I have machines, I am wholly without the pecuniary means necessary, and have no place to refuge, and no resources in the South. My wife and I have a comfortable home here, but could only expect on look for unsheltered old age elsewhere. I am altogether Southern in blood and feeling association and Kindred; and some of my sons are in the Confederate Army, but I am quite orderly and law-abiding. I trust that you will suffer me and mine to remain in our home which arraying ourselves by the solemn obligation of an oath, in hostility against our children, and all the his and sympathies of long lives now drawing to a close.

Maj. Genl. Hulburt Wm V. Taylor, M. D.

Commanding

Sources

1. ↑ Second-hand information as remembered by Karen Hodges, Thursday, May 1, 2014. Replace this citation if there is another source.

• "History of Shelby County, Tennessee"

• This profile was started through the import of indygrandma.ged on 02 January 2011.

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