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Richard Taylor, Ancient Planter (RESEARCH NOTES AND DISCUSSION)

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Surname/tag: Richard_Taylor_Ancient_Planter
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The goal of this project is to further research and share credible sourcing for Richard Taylor, the Ancient Planter of the Virginia Colony. He arrived in 1608 on the ship, Mary and Margaret.

"Ancient planter" was a term applied to early colonists who migrated to the Colony of Virginia, when the colony was managed by the Virginia Company of London. They received land grants if they stayed in the colony for at least three years. Under the terms of the "Instructions to Governor Yeardley" issued by the London Company in 1618, these colonists received the first land grants in Virginia.

Currently, there are three duplicate profiles for the Ancient Planter, Richard Taylor of the Virginia Colony:

Here are some of the tasks that I think need to be done. I'll be working on them, and could use your help.

  • Merge these three profiles into one credible, lean profile page with no random speculations that can be passed on with abandon on the internet. Leaving explorations and musing on this page until they are deemed sourced and credible will help to stop the errors being perpetuated on Ancestry and elsewhere.
  • Openly discuss various theories of the old research posted elsewhere on the internet without littering up the profile page. With discussion, these should be able to be made credible or discarded, thus helping to establish disambiguation with other Richard Taylors.
  • Explore legitimate possibilities that the Ancient Planter Richard Taylor left a descendant, including the possible Charles City, Virginia (Flowerdew Hundred) settler Richard Taylor who married Sarah Barker. This theory has been rejected by the Jamestowne Society to date. I will share a finding that I believe supports it and we will keep digging.

Will you join me? Please post a comment here on this page or send me a private message.

Thanks!

Note re: Jamestowne Society. The Richard Taylor they list says only "Taylor, Richard - A7901; College Lands: 1628 (Burgess)."[1] Taylor-23673 had the sticker/category; I removed it 6 September 2020. Category: Ancient Planters of Virginia has two Richard Taylors. Category: Mary Margaret, sailed Aug 1608 has just one, but a different one than is listed at Space: Jamestown, Virginia Colony - Taylor-15732 - who is also in a different ship category: Category: Mary and Margaret, sailed 1608 (as of 6 September 2020).

Contents

Biography Items in Question

Birth

His birthdate is established by the 1624 muster. There is no credible source for either Kent (England) or Scotland as his birthplace.

If you are aware of a new and credible DNA or birth source, please share it with us.

Relatives

At this time there is no credible source for parents, children, or siblings for the Planter, Richard Taylor, with the single exception of his daughter Mary, shown on the 1624 muster.

Misattributed Son

The Ancient Planter is not the father of Richard Taylor who married Sarah Cornett, as outlined in AN AMERICAN TAYLOR FAMILY: Descendants of Richard Taylor (d. 1679), of North Farnham Parish in the Northern Neck of Virginia, for Seven Generations, by Nathanial Lane Taylor.

Author Taylor, a Harvard historian, Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists, and editor of The American Genealogist says,

“While there is no evidence to link the ‘ancient planter’ Richard Taylor to the Kent family, neither is there any evidence to make him the father of Richard of North Farnham, in the Northern Neck…."

Possible Son

Continuing the quotation from A Taylor Family -

"In all likelihood he is the father of another Richard Taylor, who, with a wife named Sarah, was living in Charles City County in the 1650s through 1670s. Despite the coincidence of names, this younger Richard and Sarah Taylor of Charles City County are clearly distinct from Richard and Sarah Taylor of North Farnham parish, in the Northern Neck, whom we must take as generation one in the present study.”

Richard Taylor is mentioned in a neighbor’s Land Patent in the adjacent Henrico Shire, west and adjacent to Charles City Shire in 1638:

SAME [JOHN COOKENEY],150 acs., same Co. [HENRICO] & page [555]. 18 May 1638. S. upon land of Joseph Chadd, W. upon land of Richard Taylor, E. upon the maine river & N. towards the 4 Mi. Cr. Due for trans, of 3 pers: Robert Martin, Walter Brookes, Tho. Mitchell.

Virginia Patent Book No. 1 — Part II. p. 555.

In an email to Peacock-3233 author Nick Taylor suggested that if there was a way, this recently discovered land patent that I shared with him, adjacent to the Bermuda Hundred land where Richard (arrived 1608) lived "would be the way" to prove the Planter left descendants.





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Comments: 6

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Just a suggestion: might want to start the page with an explanation of the term, ala the one on Wikipedia.
posted by Stephanie Ward
Sounds like an excellent plan.
posted by Kathie (Parks) Forbes
Jillian, with regard to "Not convinced 26623 is same as 15732" the profiled individual is the same, they have simply attached him to the family of Nick Taylor's A Taylor Family in the biography notes. Since I see that profile is owned by Jack Day and he and I have already discussed this, I'll ask him to simply delete it. Thanks!
posted by Allison Peacock
You night want to start a g2g to let others researching the ancient planter of this page.
posted by Jillaine Smith
Not convinced 26623 is same as 15732
posted by Jillaine Smith
Be sure to Be careful not to blend/merge the two (three?) different Richard Taylors discussed on both 15732 and 23673.
posted by Jillaine Smith