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James Taylor (abt. 1630 - aft. 1704)

James Taylor
Born about in Scotlandmap
Son of [father unknown] and [mother unknown]
[sibling(s) unknown]
Husband of — married 17 Jan 1667 in Springfield, Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay Colonymap
Descendants descendants
Died after after about age 74 in Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts Bay Provincemap
Profile last modified | Created 29 Dec 2016
This page has been accessed 726 times.

Contents

Biography

Origin as a Prisoner of War

James Taylor was one of 6,000 Scots captured by the English at the Battle of Dunbar on September 3, 1650. The Battle of Dunbar was a devastating defeat for the Scots and a death sentence for those that were captured. Packed into POW camps under barbaric conditions, they died in droves. However, a few that survived were transported to the North American colonies and sold as indentured servants. Some went to Virginia to work the tobacco fields and some went to the Caribbean to work the sugar plantations. But the lucky ones, 150 of them, were transported to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. James Taylor was one of the 150 who arrived in Boston harbor on the ship “Unity” in December of 1650.

While there is no document that gives us a clue as to his place and year of birth, we can safely say that James was likely at least fifteen years old when he was captured and transported to New England in 1650 and may have been quite a bit older. The “Scottish Prisoners of War Society” has given James a birth year of about 1630, which seems like a reasonable guess.

Many of the Scots on the “Unity”, including James Taylor, worked as indentured servants at the Saugus Iron Works in Lynn, Massachusetts and James is, in fact, found on a 1653 list of Scots working there. By 1655, however, his indenture had apparently been sold to John Pynchon in Springfield, Massachusetts. When the original indenture agreement had apparently been fulfilled, James entered into another indenture with John Pynchon in which he agreed to work for Pynchon from December 3, 1658 to December 3, 1659.

Marriage

James Taylor married Mary Taylor, daughter of Jonathan and Mary Wright Taylor, in Springfield on Jan 17, 1666/67[1]

Land Grants

James received the following grants of land:

1659 – Abell Wright and James Taylor received 50 acres at the higher end of “Chickuppe playn” on the west side of the great river.

1662 Jan 30 – 6 acres

1665 Jan 5 – Meadow land (no acreage given), 20 acres upland, 30 acres bottom land

1665 Feb 6 – 40 acres

Note: All these grants of land were located on the other side of the Connecticut River from the town of Springfield which subsequently came to be called West Springfield. While the property descriptions are too vague to pinpoint exactly where these properties were located, there is enough information to tell us that James' properties were located in an area just north of the existing Paucatuck Cemetery in West Springfield.

Indian Attack on Springfield

The year 1675 was an extremely dangerous year for everyone living in the frontier settlements of New England. King Philip's War found settlement after settlement under Indian attack from tribes that considered this their last chance to rid the land of the English colonists. The people of Springfield were terrified and many wanted to abandon the town for someplace safer. The colonial government in Boston encouraged them to stay. By October of that year the nearby towns of Deerfield, Northfield and Hadley had been attacked.

On October 4, 1675 every available male citizen soldier of Springfield was ordered to ride to Hadley to protect that town. At that point in time it was the policy of the United Colonies Commission, who was running minute details of the war from a distance, that these armies of men be kept together even if it meant some towns went unprotected. Although there was much disagreement with this policy, the men of Springfield followed orders and rode to Hadley leaving the town of Springfield totally unprotected.

Knowing all the men had ridden away, the Indians prepared their attack for the next morning. Here fate intervened. In the middle of the night, the people of Springfield were warned of the attack by a friendly Indian. Women, children and what few men were left in the town, ran through the darkness carrying whatever guns and ammunition they could grab. Their destination was three houses in different parts of town, that had been fortified to withstand an Indian attack. Safely inside, they bolted the doors and waited.

Dawn came and still no attack. A few people, thinking it was a false alarm, wandered outside. When the attack came, no one outside the fortified houses survived. Most people had stayed inside, however, and the Indians were never able to break in or set fire to these three fortified houses. The women and older children were able to keep up a threatening enough line of gun fire to keep the Indians away. But all the other houses in Springfield were ransacked and the town was burned to the ground. A message had gotten to the Springfield men in Hadley that their town was in trouble and they came back on a dead run just in time to chase away the last of the Indians.

But what of James and his family? Very few people are mentioned in any of the historical accounts of the attack, but we can guess that James rode with the rest of the men to Hadley since all accounts say that very few men stayed behind in Springfield. The historical accounts also tell us that West Springfield, where James and his family lived, was not touched by the Indians. We can only guess that James might have taken Mary and their then three small children, James Jr., Mary and Samuel to stay with her parents in the town while he was gone to Hadley. Mary and the three children then were undoubtedly in one of the fortified houses during the terrifying attack.

Other Mentions in the Springfield Records

1659 Dec 23 - James was assigned the 10th seat in the meetinghouse.

1663 Feb 23 - James was assigned a gallery seat in the meetinghouse.

1670 Aug 19 - James and others were cited for their cattle being in a field that was “contrary to ordinance.”

1677 Feb 12 - James was appointed one of the fence viewers.

1678 Mar - James was appointed the tything-man for “all the families on the West side of the river at Springfield.”

1678 Dec 31 - The town records note that James, along with most of the adult male citizens of Springfield, took the Oath of Allegiance to the crown.

1679 Aug 4 - James and others were instructed that they “should do their portion of theire fence that they used to do”.

Later Life

The date of James passing is not known with any certainty. The “Scottish Prisoner of War Society” gives it as October 27, 1703, with no supporting documentation, but James is likely still alive on February 21, 1704 when his son James marries and is described in all the records as “Jr”. Normally the designation of junior was dropped when the older person of the same name passed away. In addition, the date of October 27 is the same date that James son James passed away in 1720. It is entirely possible that a father and son die on the same month and day years apart, but more likely suggests some misinterpretation of the records or clerical error as the two men have the same name. Lastly, the Springfield records show a James Taylor passing away on October 27, 1720 but that record is for his son James. Until other records are discovered, the most reasonable statement as to his date of death would be to state that he passed away sometime after February 21, 1704, the date of his son's marriage.

Children

James and Mary Taylor/Tailor had 10 children recorded in Springfield.[2]

  • Rebecca, b. 18 Nov 1668, died 5 Feb 1668/9
  • James, b. 26 Nov 1669, m. Dorothy Rogers
  • Mary, b. 28 Dec 1671
  • John, b. 14 Mar 1672/3, died 19 Nov 1673
  • Samuel, b. 26 Sep 1674
  • Elizabeth, b. 5 Jan 1677, died 27 Nov 1710
  • Jonathan, b. 30 Oct 1679
  • Ebenezer, b. 26 Aug 1681, died 27 June 1689
  • Samuel, b. 6 Apr 1686
  • Rebecca, b. 12 July 1689
  • Thomas, perhaps b. 1692 ??, died 17 June 1703, recorded as "s. James Senior and Mary"
    Roll of Honor
    James Taylor was a Prisoner of War during Anglo-Scottish Wars.


Sources

  1. Hampden, Massachusetts, "Vital Records of Springfield,", Bk. 1, p. 15, James Taylor and Mary Taylor, Jan. 17, 1666
  2. Hampden, Massachusetts, "Vital Records of Springfield,", citing Bk. 1, pp. 21-32, & 48, 56 in the original




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Comments: 3

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Taylor-92736 and Taylor-37081 appear to represent the same person because: Both profiles were Scottish Prisoners of War from the Battle of Dunbar.

Very near same age.

posted by David Winters P.E.
posted on Taylor-92736 (merged) by Tim Prince

Rejected matches › James Taylor (bef.1630-1630)