George Taylor (1711 - 1792)

Born 11 Feb 1711 in King and Queen, Virginia

Ancestors

Husband of Rachel (Gibson) Taylor — married 28 Feb 1738 in Orange County, Colony of Virginia [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 4 Nov 1792 at age 81 in Orange, Virginia, United States

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Biography

George Taylor was born 11 Feb 1711 in Virginia, the son of James Taylor II and Martha Thompson. He married first to Rachel Gibson and they had 11 sons before Rachel died in 1761. He married second in 1767 to Sarah (Taliaferro) Conway, widow of Captain Francis Conway. George passed away at home on 04 Nov 1792 and is buried at the Taylor family cemetery on the grounds of his son Erasmus Taylor's home Greenfield.

Colonel George Taylor served during the French and Indian War.

Colonel George Taylor performed Patriotic Service in Virginia in the American Revolution.

George Taylor is a DAR Patriot Ancestor, A112475.

George Taylor (1711-1792) supplied beef to the patriot army during the revolution. Also he was a clerk of the court. ^[1]

The following narrative is excerpted from the biography of George and Rachel Taylor by Jouett Taylor Prisley

It is not known where George Taylor was born, but it would most likely have been in New Kent County, Virginia where his father first settled, or King William County, which was formed from New Kent County in 1702. George was 11 when his father built Bloomsbury in what was then Spotsylvania County, now Orange County, Virginia. He was 27 when he married his bride of 20, the daughter of Jonathan Gibson and Margaret Catlett. ^[2]

There is a George Taylor on record as warden and vestryman of St. Mary’s Parish in Caroline County for several years, and it's possible that after coming of legal age in 1732, George left what was then Spotsylvania County and moved back east to Caroline County for a time before returning west and appearing in Orange County records beginning in 1742, eight years after Orange County was formed in 1734:

1742: Commissioned Captain in the Orange County militia at age 31, and saw some minimal action in regional skirmishes in the French-Indian Wars (both King George's War of 1744-1748 and the French & Indian War of 1754-1763).

1747-1758: Member of Virginia House of Burgesses as one of two representatives from Orange County.

1748-1758: Justice of the Peace and Magistrate of Orange County.

1749: Commissioned Lieutenant Colonel in the Orange County militia at age 38.

1749-1772: Appointed Clerk of the Orange County Court for 23 years.

1755: Commissioned Colonel in the Orange County militia at age 44.

1774: Committee of Safety, Orange County.

1775: Member of the Virginia Convention.

Collina was George’s early home in Orange before he built Midland, ^[3] where George's son Francis detailed in his diary ^[4] its construction and their life there.

George lost Rachel when she contracted smallpox from their second son George, who brought it home with him from the French-Indian Wars. Refusing to leave the nursing to others, she became infected and followed her 20-year-old son in death by two weeks, leaving of three of her ten surviving sons as young adults, and the other seven in ages from under two to 14 years of age.

All eleven sons -- they had no daughters -- were born in Orange County:

1. James was born 16 Dec 1738. He was a Sergeant Major in the Continental Line, received approximately 300 land grant acres in Kentucky and resided there, rearing about 13 children with his wife Ann Pendleton. James died in 1799 in Jefferson County Kentucky.
2. George was born 08 Jan 1741. Unmarried, he came home with smallpox from French-Indian Wars and died at age 20 in Feb 1761.
3. Jonathan was born 03 Dec 1742. He was a lieutenant in the Convention Guards, the same unit as were his younger brothers Francis and Charles. Jonathan received a land grant in Kentucky, married Ann Berry, and they had about 13 children in Clark County where he died in 1804.
4. Edmund was born 21 Oct 1744, removed to Kentucky on war service land grants and died 01 Jul 1786, pre-deceasing his father. His daughter, Sarah Stubbs Taylor, married her first cousin, Richard, son of Edmund's brother Richard.
5. Francis was born 09 Mar 1747. He remained a bachelor and kept a diary of his farming, family events, and the local Orange County scene from 1786-1799. Francis inherited Midland and had 5,333 acres in Kentucky. He never resided there and bequeathed the land to his bachelor brother Benjamin. Francis died in Orange County in Nov 1799.
6. Richard was born 06 Jan 1749 and was instrumental in forging the small but active Virginia colonial navy. He received land grants in Kentucky, and died in Oldham County 30 Aug 1825. His son Richard married a first cousin, daughter of his brother Edmund.
7. John was born 27 Jan 1751. An unmarried lieutenant in Richard’s navy flotilla, he was captured by the British and died in 1781 on the British prison ship Jersey in New York harbor.
8. William was born 23 Jan 1753. He was first lieutenant, then captain in the 2nd Virginia Regiment in 1776, then major in the 9th Virginia Regiment 1779-1781. He married first to Lucy Hord, second to Elizabeth Coats, and had seven children. He died in Kentucky 14 Apr 1830 where he had taken up his land grant after the Revolution.
9. Charles was born 03 Jan 1755. He was a surgeon’s mate in the 2nd Virginia Regiment in 1776, and a surgeon in the Convention Guards, 1779-1780. He married his step-sister, Sarah Conway, daughter of his father’s second wife and they had ten children. He received a 100 acre land grant in Kentucky, but may not have lived there.
10. Reuben was born 14 Jan 1757. He was a captain in the 2nd Canadian Regiment 1776-1778. He married Rebecca Moore and they resided in Kentucky where he had received a 4,000 acre land grant.
11. Benjamin was born 11 Nov 1759. He was a navy midshipman at age 17 in service in the Revolution with his brother Richard. For that he received 2,666 acres in Kentucky, where he removed and remained single.

Seven of the 11 sons removed to Kentucky to take up their Revolutionary service land grants. George died before the Revolution and John died during the war. Only Charles and Francis remained in Virginia.

Two years after George’s second marriage, he fathered his twelfth son, George Conway Taylor, who married but died at age 36 without issue.

According to his son Francis's diary, George died about 4 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon after a painful sickness indicated as "a disease of the bladder". Francis and his brother James attended him at his death, and their half-brother George Conway Taylor was also in the house. George retained his senses until a few moments before he expired. He was buried in the graveyard at brother Erasmus's home Greenfield between George's mother Martha Thompson Taylor and his wife Rachel. The brothers Francis, James, Reuben, and George attended the funeral, along with Captain Burnley, Judge Bell, and Colonel Madison, father of future President James Madison. ^[5]

Will

Transcribed by Jouett Taylor Prisley in 1997 and excerpted here:

LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF GEORGE TAYLOR, dated 05 Sep 1789, sons Francis and Benjamin, executors (see pp. 6-7 of attached biography)

• to son, James, all my household furniture where he now lives, negro woman Rachel in his possession, and 2 young negroes, between the ages of 5-15
• to son, Jonathan, £5
• to executors of my son, Edmund, £5
• to son, Richard, £5
• to son, William, £5, 3 negroes (Phil, Aaron and Doll) in his possession, and additional £33
• to son, Charles, £5
• to son, Reuben, £5
• to son, Francis, 500 acres of land, including plantation (Midland) I now live on, a negro man named Frank in his possession, and 1 grown negro and 2 young negroes
• to son, Benjamin, 4 negroes (2 grown and 2 young), 4 other negroes
• to son, George Conway Taylor, 525 acres of land in Fayette County on the Kentucky River
• remainder of estate to be equally divided among all aforementioned sons

Enslaved Africans

5 named in George's will:

Rachel - to James

Phil, Aaron, Doll - to William

Frank - to Francis

13 unnamed in George's will:

2 - to James - Francis's diary names them as Judy, age 11, and Clara, age 9

3 - to Francis

8 - to Benjamin

1 named in Francis's diary:

Sary

Sources

1. ↑ Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Genealogical Research Databases, database online, (http://www.dar.org/ : accessed 21 Feb 2024), "Record of George Taylor", Ancestor # A112475.
2. ↑ Donald Robertson and his wife, Rachel Rogers, of King and Queen County, Virginia, etc., by William Kyle Anderson. Detroit: Winn and Hammond, printers, 1900, p. 248
3. ↑ Historic Taylor Family Homes in Orange County, Virginia, 1722-Present
4. ↑ Francis Taylor Diary, 1786-1799. Original on file in the Library of Virginia. Copies available from Filson Historical Society, Louisville, Kentucky and University of North Carolina Library, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
5. ↑ Francis Taylor Diary, Orange County, Virginia, 1786-1799

See also:

• Find A Grave: Memorial #18541233 for Col George Taylor (11 Feb 1711–4 Nov 1792), citing Greenfield Cemetery, Orange, Orange County, Virginia, USA ; Maintained by Paul Taylor "Moochie" (contributor 46596943).
• Introduction to Francis Taylor Diary, 1786-1799, by Taylor historian William Kyle Anderson, 1900
• Virginia Genealogies: A Genealogy of the Glassell Family of Scotland and Virginia, etc., by Horace Edwin Hayden. Wilkes-Barre: E. B. Yordy, Printer, 1891, pp. 673-674
• Donald Robertson and his wife, Rachel Rogers, of King and Queen County, Virginia, etc., by William Kyle Anderson. Detroit: Winn and Hammond, printers, 1900, p. 248
• Colonial Families of the Southern States of America: A History and Genealogy of Colonial Families who Settled in the Colonies Prior to the Revolution, by Stella Pickett Hardy. New York: Tobias A. Wright, Printer and Publisher, 1911, pg. 507.
• Lineage Book, Vol. 35 (1901), compiled by Sarah Hall Johnston, Washington: National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, 1912, p. 221
• “Notes and Queries - The Gibson Family”, in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 28, no. 1, 1920, pp. 70–77. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4243755.
• "Spring Hill, Oldham County, Ky., The Home of Major William Berry Taylor", by Alice Elizabeth Trabue. Published in The Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society", Vol. 18, Issue 53. Frankfort: Kentucky State Historical Society, 1920, pp. 28-29
• "A Sketch of Colonial Orange", by Bessie Ginnan, Tyler's Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Vol. 4, Lyon Gardiner Tyler, editor. Richmond: Richmond Press Inc., 1923, pp. 109-114
• The ancestry and posterity of Dr. John Taliaferro and Mary (Harding) Taliaferro, with notes on Berryman, Newton, Beheathland, Franklin, Lingo and other Southern families, by Willie Catherine Ivey and Mary Harding Taliaferro. Tennille, Ga.: published by the author, 1936

Profile history:

• WikiTree profile Taylor-7879 created through the import of BaxterFamilyTree.ged on Jan 27, 2012 by Jason Baxter. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Jason and others.

See also:

• Find A Grave: Memorial #18541233
• 500 years of Wittel and related families

George Taylor

Birth Date 11 Feb 1711 Birth Place Orange Co, VA

First Marriage Date 28 Feb 1738 First Marriage Place Rapidan, Orange, VA

Death Date 11 Apr 1792 Death Place Rapidan, Orange, VA

Father James Taylor Mother Martha Thompson

Spouse Rachael Gibson; Sarah Taliaferro

Child William Taylor; James Taylor; George T Taylor; George Loudon Taylor; Jonathan Taylor; Edmund Taylor; Francis Taylor; Richard Taylor; John Taylor; Peter Taylor; Charles Taylor; Reuben Taylor