Individual Notes Page

Stephen TAYLOR - #1 on the Taylor Family Tree Page. He is listed in the LDS Ancestral File (AF) as the great grandson of a Robert, grandson of a Robert, and son of a Robert. The latter designation is the Robert Taylor of Spreyton, Devonshire, England. Stephen's mother is variously listed, but if he is a son of Robert of Spreyton, then his mother would be Thomasyne SMALLRIDGE, a daughter of Richard. She was christened in St. Mary's parish (Parish records) in Tedbury, Devon, England on June 15, 1586, and she died in 1618, probably shortly after her son's birth. It is not certain who Stephen's parents were. What is known is that he was not a great grandson of the Robert Taylor listed in the AF. A personal search of many parish registers of Devon show that there was no connection between the older two generations of Robert TAYLOR (who clearly were father and son) and the third generation Robert TAYLOR. After a difficult search in 1995, I discovered the submitter of the information, had correspondence with him, and learned that his submission was based on a 'best guess' method taken from the International Genealogical Index (IGI), and not from a search of Parish Registers. There is reason to believe that our Stephen was at least born in England's West Country, the southwest peninsula that contains the shires of Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. The associates of Stephen after his definitive arrival in the New England area were known to have come from these regions. Stephen is first known to be in Windsor, Connecticut in 1640 by being named in the Windsor Land Inventory (Great Migration Begins, Anderson, 1995, NEHGS, p. 938, 995), although there is another published claim (Search for the Passengers of the Mary and John, Edited by Burton Spear, Vol. 17, p. 201) indicating Stephen may have been in Dorchester, Massachusetts as early as 1633. He first is seen in Windsor Town Records at the time of his marriage to Sarah HOSFORD on 1 November 1642. His marriage to our line's Elizabeth ____ NOWELL was 25 October 1649 (Windsor VR Vol. 1, p. 62) and this union led to the births of six children including their first son John of our line (Windsor VR Vol. MG). There is a discussion of Stephen Taylor of Windsor available and published in The American Genealogist (Vol 37, pgs. 197-203), and there is a brief biography in Stiles The History of Ancient Windsor (Vol II, p. 749-750). He was admitted to the First Church of Windsor March 6, 1644 (Stiles, p. 749). He was one of the first to move to the East side of the Connecticut River about 1656 with Richard Samways. He is mentioned in a number of other publications, including Memorial History of Hartford County, Vol II, p. 552, 557 and Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, p. 190. 353 and 356; his name is inscribed on the Palisado Monument of Windsor as a Founder. He died 1 September, 1688. Elizabeth, his wife, probably born about 1630, was a widow when she married in 1649 to Stephen. Her husband, Thomas NOWELL (Conn Nutmegger, 6/93, Vol. 26, p.23), had died the year before her marriage to Stephen. Thomas and Elizabeth apparently had no children. Her maiden name remains unknown. She was admitted to the church in 1666 (Stiles Vol. II, p. 749), and Elizabeth died in 1689, "the widow Taylor dyed August 5 1689" (Land Records Colony of Connecticut, p. 57 of Vol. D). The will of Stephen TAYLOR of Windsor is preserved in Hartford, probate number 5403. A transcript of it is as follows:

Will of Stephen Taylor:
August 16, 1683
The last will and testament of Steuen Taylor sener is as followeth my Soule I bequeath too god that gaue it and my body to a christian buriall and as for that estat that god hath giuen me all my just debts being payd and funerall charges first I giue to my deare and loueing wife my house and barne and the Uper halfe of my lott bounding by Thomas Bissell duering her life and also I giue to my wife liberty too take of my house all goods what se ses cause duering her life and also out of the estat ten pounds to be at her owne dispose. I giue to my son Steuen the lower haluf of my lott to tak posession after my Deceas he paying ten pounds to my estat within on twelue month after my disceas: to my son Samuell I giue twenty shillings also to my son Thomas I giue ten pounds: as for my son John i giue after my wiues decease I giue him my house and barne on that haluf of my lott next to Thomas Bissell he paying forty pounds with in three years after his mother desease and too my daughter Abigall I giue twenty four pounds and too my daughter Mary i giue twenty ponds too my daughter Mindwell I giue therty five pounds shee being pay of the legacy first twenty pounds and then for what my estate fals short to pay thay must all stay by equall proportion till the money be dew from Steuen and John but in case by any prouedent my estat fals short to make good all my legaces thay are all to beare ther parts proportiabl as thay are to reseave also I apoint my wife and son John executers to this my last will and my desier is that Thomas Bissell senr and Nathanell Bissell may be ouerseers of this my last will and to be helpfull too my wife and John and thay to repare to them for aduice and councell this the sixteene day of August eighty three in witness hear of I set my hand in the presant of witnes that word first about mindwell was enther lines before subscription.
Stephen Taylor
witnes Thomas Bissell
Nathanell Bissell sener
(In the margin is written lengthwise) it is further addes i presence of ye witnesses yt in case his daughter Mary be dead, yt the legacy given her it should be devided amongst her children

(On the reverse of the Will in the Library in Hartford) Will of Stephen Taylor late of Windsor, decd 1688. September 4, 1688. Inventory taken of the estat of Steuen Taylor deceased 49 pounds 8 shillings and 3 pence. (Signed) Joseph Fitch, Samuel Grant sener, Joshua Wills.

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John TAYLOR - #3. He was born 22 March and christened 28 March 1651/2 in Windsor, Connecticut (Old Church Records). He probably grew up primarily in East Windsor. He was required with his father to care for roads in the east side community in 1672 (Stiles, Ancient History of Windsor, Vol. II, p. 750). He moved to and married in Suffield firstly to Sarah YOUNGLOVE in 1682, but she died 17 June 1683 with the birth of their first child. He later married, also in Suffield, to Elizabeth SPENCER on the twenty fourth of March 1686. They had two children in Suffield, and then probably after the death of his father in 1688, moved back to the Windsor area, where the remainder of their children were born (ibid p. 751). He was one of the petitioners of the General Court April 6, 1694 to settle a minister on the side of the Great River. John died 20 July 1726 in Windsor, or East Windsor. The children of John and Elizabeth migrated to varied locales, including West Jerzeys, now New Jersey (Elizabeth who married Jonathan STILES), and as you may see below, several moved to Litchfield County, Connecticut, including our Ebenezer. These homes and the people that lived there are mentioned together in records at the sale of John's remaining land in Windsor, undoubtedly that inherited from his father Stephen (Windsor Land Records Vol. 6, p. 144). Our line's Elizabeth SPENCER was a daughter of Thomas SPENCER, another emigrant from England, and his wife Sarah (BARDING/BEARDING) SPENCER. Elizabeth was born in Hartford, Connecticut in March of 1648 and christened March 26th.

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Ebenezer TAYLOR - #14. This man was born 11 September 1697 in East Windsor, and is listed in Stiles' (p. 750 of Vol. II) as the fifth child of John and Elizabeth. He grew up a farmer with his father. He became a member of the First Church in Windsor and had the fifth seat, where his father John had the first seat and brother Nathaniel had the fourth. In 1721, his father conveyed to him about five acres of land in East Windsor.

(John Taylor senior of Windsor for the goodwill and gracious affection that I do bare unto my son Ebenezer Taylor of Windsor, conveys to him land in Windsor, east of Connecticut River, with tenement thereon, bounded East on highway, North on John Smith, West on my own land at the ditch or drain, south on John Moore, 5 acres, more or less, November 11, 1721. Windsor Land Records Vol. I, p. 135)

This must have been at or around the time of Ebenezer's marriage to Eleanor/Elena GRANT, and could have been in honor of their marriage. The land had a dwelling on it, which was likely this couple's first homestead. It is not clear where all of the children were born to Ebenezer and Eleanor, but they are all listed in the Litchfield Town Records. This led some to believe that the family was in Litchfield at the birth of Ebenezer, Jr. in 1721, however we know that this was not the case. Land records show though that the family got about 100 acres in 1730 and certainly was there in 1733 (Windsor Land Records Vol. 6, p. 144). So, we can confidently assume that they moved from the Windsor area to Litchfield about 1730. This probably means that our Tahan was born in Windsor. Ebenezer was a member of the church in Litchfield, was a Selectman of the Town in the 1750's, and was a Grand Juror in 1761 (Sketches and Chronicles of the Town of Litchfield, Conn. Payne Kilbourn, 1862, pgs. 220, 232). The family is noted in Town Records and mentioned above and summarized in another publication (Litchfield Families, Woodruff, 1845, p. 219). Ebenezer died with date unclear. No obituary or death date in public or church records has been found, but his death probably occured about 1771. In that year, his son Ebenezer conveyed to his sister Mabel the prior house of their father, apparently inherited by the son. The deed (Litchfield Land Records) says dwelling of his Hond Father Ebenezer Taylor late of T. Litchfield Deceased. Ebenezer's wife Eleanor, also noted as Elena or Elinor, was a great granddaughter of one of the most famous men of ancient Windsor, Matthew GRANT, known as The Recorder. His story is well known, and is told elsewhere. Eleanor was a daughter of Thomas and Sarah (PINNEY) GRANT, born in 1696 in Windsor. Her father was a son of Tahan, the namesake of two generations of our line. Tahan GRANT was born 1633 in Dorchester, Massachusetts before his father Matthew and mother Priscilla (GREY) GRANT's migration in 1635 to Windsor. Eleanor lived long, and apparently enjoyed her family. At her death, a colorful obituary was published in The Weekly Monitor and Litchfield Town and County Recorder, the weekly local newspaper (Tuesday December 12, 1786 issue, Vol 10, number 3). The text is as follows:

The Widow Eleanor Taylor, whose decease was mentioned in our last, we are now informed, came to her end " like a shock of corn fully ripe, " being in the ninety first year of her age, and has left a numerous progeny, viz. eight children, thirty-six grand-children, and seventy-one great-grand-children. --- Her remains were decently interred, the 3d instant, when a sermon suitable to the occasion was preached, by the Rev. Judah Champion.

Incidentally, we are aware of four more grandchildren than the 36 mentioned, so we suspect that four died prior to their grandmother's death. One of those was probably the Joel, son of Joel, who died at the inhuman hands of British captors in January of 1777. Actually, 30 of the 36 Litchfield men captured at Fort Washington in November of 1776 at the mouth of the Hudson River, died in captivity. Young Joel was a drummer, and was in his teens when he died. (Histories available elsewhere detail the maltreatment of the American Prisoners with an aggregate estimated death toll of 11,000 men from disease, malnutrition, exposure and beatings. A memorial to the Martyrs in Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn honors the men who died on the prison ships in Wallabout Bay during the American Revolution.)

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Tahan Taylor - #44. We are told from Town Records (transcribed and published in Litchfield Families by Woodruff, 1845, p. 219) that he was born in the Town of Litchfield, Litchfield County, Connecticut on June 14, 1727 to Ebenezer and Elena. But, as we noted above in the notes of his father Ebenezer, he may actually have been born in East Windsor prior to the move to Litchfield. At the latest though, he would still have been a young boy when he came to Litchfield. He was named for Elena's grandfather Tahan GRANT. We know from the same source (Woodruff's Litchfield Families) that he married February 10, 1757 to Ruth PRESTON in Litchfield. The first nine of their eleven children were listed as born in Connecticut, but the last two, Ruth and Giles were born in Massachusetts. We assume then that the family moved to West Stockbridge, Berkshire County, Mass. between 1775 and 1777. Many of the Taylors from Litchfield were involved in the patriot activities in the Revolutionary War, but it is not confirmed that any of our direct Taylors were. This Tahan was a little old to serve, but some of the sons may have. No Loyalist ties have ever been found, and the region that they lived in in Massachusetts would make Loyalist ties very unlikely. There also is no clear indication of the death of Tahan or Ruth, and no burial sites have been discovered. Tahan must have been alive at the 1786 death of his mother Eleanor/Elena judging from her obituary.

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Tahan Taylor - #72. Tahan was the first son of Tahan and Ruth (PRESTON) TAYLOR. He was born in Litchfield County, Connecticut (Woodruff's Litchfield Families, 1845, p. 220) November 25, 1761. He must have been a teen when he moved to Massachusetts with his family. He married in West Stockbridge to Asenath DEVEREAUX, a daughter of Jonathan of Stockbridge. She was born about 1759. They were married in 1783. Church records (First Congregational Church Records of West Stockbridge 1789-1848) shows a dismissal of the couple in 1799. Despite this, their last child Bryant was supposedly born in Massachusetts in 1804. Tahan is seen on the First US Census of 1790 as Tehan in West Stockbridge, p. 699. He also is seen in 1800 as Teahan in West Stockbridge (p. 251) with four sons and one daughter. There has been no sighting of their location at the time of the 1810 census. We do not know when the family moved to Franklin, Delaware County, New York, but son William reportedly arrived in 1808 (Munsell's History of Delaware County, NY p. 175). We have assumed that Tahan and Asenath arrived near to that time. Tahan died January 9, 1834 (gravestone, shown on Cemetery page) and is buried in the Congregational Cemetery in Franklin. Asenath, many of whose siblings also moved from Massachusetts into New York, including Delaware County, died February 3, 1844 (gravestone, see Cemetery page) and is buried beside Tahan. Other Census enumerations include 1820, NY, Del, Franklin, p. 63 as Teahand; and 1830 NY, Del, Franklin, p. 132 as Than.

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Harry Taylor - #92. Harry was born in West Stockbridge, Berkshire County, Massachusetts (Town Vital Records) April 26, 1794 as the fourth son of Tahan and Asenath. As is noted with his parents, his whereabouts between about 1804 and 1815 are unknown at this time. About 1815, he arrived in Franklin apparently with much of his family (date estimated from 1855 NYS, Delaware, Franklin entries of Harry and brother Bryant). His whole adult life was spent around Franklin. He married in 1820 to Elizabeth NOBLE, a daughter of Zadoc/Zadock, an early merchant in Franklin (Munsell's History of Delaware County, 1881, p. 181). Elizabeth was born in Franklin April the first, 1800. She lived her entire life in and around Franklin. Elizabeth, as did many of the NOBLE family, died relatively early. She died April the thirteenth, 1856, and is buried in the Congregational Cemetery in Franklin (see Cemetery Pages). Harry, as did many of his line of TAYLOR, lived to a much older age. As noted above, his grandmother lived to 90. Harry's brother William lived to age 95; brother Benajah was still alive at age 91; brother Giles was alive at age 87; brother Bryant lived to 84; and, sister Abiah lived to age 82. Harry remarried in June of 1857 to a widow, Christina (___) BABCOCK. Harry was a successful farmer and was still working actively at age 76. He died at age 82 in Franklin, and is buried next to Elizabeth in the Congregational Cemetery (gravestone, see Cemetery page). He wrote a will in 1874, which was recorded August 9, 1874 (Del. Co. Surr. Court Book I, p. 175) and proved June 26, 1876. The will gave a third of his estate to his surviving wife Christina, 800 dollars to each daughter, 750 dollars to son Charles, and 50 dollars to grandson Samuel (son of deceased Harry, Jr.). His census recordings are as follows: 1820 NY, Del., Franklin, p. 61; 1840 NY, Del, Franklin, p. 438 as Henry; 1850 NY, Del, Franklin p. 45 stamped and 18 written, as Henry; 1855 NYS Census, Del. Co., Franklin 133/143; 1860 NY, Del. Franklin, p. 18; 1865 NYS, Del Co, 7/7; 1870 NY, Del,Town of Franklin, p. 72.

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