James Taylor, ll, of 'Rapidan'

Not the same as James Taylor, of Christopher Bay

James Taylor, Il, of 'Rapidan'

• Gender: Male
• Birth: about March 14, 1674/5 New Kent County, Colony and Dominion of Virginia
• Death: June 23, 1729 (55) Spotsylvania (later Orange) County, Colony and Dominion of Virgini
• Place of Burial: Taylor-Quarles Family Cemetery, Orange, Orange County, Virginia, United States
• Son of Col. James Taylor, of King & Queen and his 1st wife
• Husband of Martha Thompson

Profile updated April 2021

Origins

Extracted from https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Taylor-678

James II is assumed to have been born in New Kent Co., Virginia, since that is where his father is first found on record in the Colonies in 1675.

"There are very few records of James Taylor I, but some of his land patents have survived and are accessible at the Library of Virginia and are online at their website. Some of his life may be traced through these records, though there were many more that were destroyed by fire and war. These missing records would have told of the disposal of the patents owned by James I, and if they had survived would have given us more of his story.

James I had a son from his first wife–James II. He was of age by 1695, so the land patents granted after this date may have been to either James until 1698 when James I died.

The name of James Taylor I's first wife is not known. Frances Walker was assumed by some genealogists to be the first wife of James Taylor I based on the fact that James Taylor II named his first daughter Frances, and because James Taylor I was a neighbor to Maj. Thomas Walker. There is no primary source documentation indicating that Maj. Thomas Walker had a daughter named Frances, nor is there any primary source for the identity of James Taylor I's first wife.

James Taylor's first wife died on 22 Sep 1680, leaving James with three young children. Two years later on 10 Aug 1682, James married Mary Gregory of Rappahannock.

Family

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Thompson-640

"James Taylor, of King and Queen County, born 1674, died 1729, was long a surveyor in extensive practice, and was a member of the House of Burgesses in 1702. He married Martha, daughter of Roger Thompson, of New Kent County, on 23 Feb 1699.

The following narrative, written in 2001, is taken from Jouett Taylor Prisley's family history and genealogy papers.

She was said to be a worthy woman who was lavished with praise and attention, and described as “brilliant, vivacious, graceful, a famous beauty, proud and queenly, firm and dignified in character, with charming manners.

James and Martha built a house in 1722 on the western frontier of Virginia slightly east of Orange. As of 2015, it still exists in prime restored order, furnished with period antiques, and privately owned, but not occupied, by a descendant of James II, along with thousands of acres of Orange County, approximating the original Taylor land grant. More than one-third of Orange County was still called, in the latter 1900s “the Taylor District,” and so marked on maps.

James and Martha had nine children, the few eldest not born there at Bloomsbury but most reared there:

1. Frances, b. 1700, m. Amrose Madison, d. 1761 - their son James Sr. m. Nelly Conway, and their son was Pres. James Madison.
2. Martha: b. 1702, m. Thomas Chew, d. 1786 - they had eight children, and their grandson Thomas Chew (1777-1846), held Captain Lawrence of the frigate Chesapeake as he died, saying "Don't give up the ship!"
3. James III, b. 1703, d. 1784, m. Alice (Thornton) Catlett and two others, inherited Bloomsbury
4. Joseph Zachary, b. 1707, m. Elizabeth Lee, d. 1768 - built the Taylor home Meadowfarm, grandson was Pres. Zachary Taylor, and granddaughter Sarah m. Confederate President Jefferson Davis
5. George, b. 1711, m. Rachel Gibson, d. 1792, built the Taylor home Midland and had 11 sons, all but one of whom served in the Revolution.
6. Tabitha, b. 1713, m. Thomas Wylde / Wild
7. Erasmus, b. 1715, m. Jane Moore, d. 1794, inherited the Taylor home Greenfileld
8. Hannah, b. 1718, m. Nicholas Bataille
9. Mildred, b. 1724, m. Richard Thomas

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biographical notes

Surveyor-General of the Colony

Member of the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe, an expedition to discover inland Virginia. "First discovered the Great Road in 1716 and crossed the Appalachin mountains, drank a toast to King George's health and buried a bottle claming the vast valley for the King of England. The Knights' motto became 'Sic Juvat Transcendere Montes' (Behold, We Cross the Mountains)."

James's daughter Frances m. Ambrose Madison; they were the grandparents of President James Madison. His son Zachary Taylor m. Elizabeth Lee; they were the grandparents of President Zachary Taylor.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Taylor-678

James and Martha had the unrivaled distinction of being great-grandparents of two U.S. Presidents: James Madison, “Father of the Constitution,” and Zachary Taylor, hero of Palo Alto, Monterey, and Buena Vista in the Mexican War. James and Martha would also become great-great grandparents of the first wife Sarah Knox Taylor of the President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis. She died of cholera (or malaria) early in their marriage and had no children.

James II was the only surviving son of his father James I and first wife, whose name we do not know (but who is often claimed to be Frances Walker). James II was six and his sister Sarah four when their mother died. Two years later, James’s father married again and had four more surviving children. James II would have been 24 when his father died, and 25 when he married Martha in 1699.

James was a man of good reputation, and of substance, both in wealth and intellect. He was colonel of a militia regiment; from 1702 to 1714, he was a member of the House of Burgesses from King and Queen County; in 1704 he owned 4,000 acres in St. Stephen’s Parish of New Kent County, where he was a vestryman; he was Surveyor General of the Colony of Virginia; and he at times also served as Sheriff and Justice of the Peace. Charles Campbell mentions James II as “a kindly man, opposed to the persecution of dissenters,” primarily Baptists.

In locating the county lines for Spotsylvania, Caroline, and Orange counties, Taylor was able to acquire a baronial estate (in land) of approximately one-third of Orange County, called the ”Taylor District.” Trained and licensed at William and Mary, James was one of two surveyors for Spotsylvania County. About the time of his death, James II's son, James III, received a court order to return his father’s plat book. Much later the first survey book of Caroline County turned up in the Clerk of Court’s office in Campbell County, Kentucky, apparently taken there by a migrating Taylor.

In 1715, James presented an impressive sundial to “the Upper Church of St. Stephen’s Parish,” in New Kent Co. It was bronze, octagonal, measuring 14 inches across the face and bearing a gift inscription from said donor to recipient. The maker, John Bowen, and the place, Bristol, England, are identified, and the latitude of its original location, “38 degrees, 00.” When the church was abandoned in 1800, the sundial was removed to safekeeping by a family of the parish. Heirs of that family, 125 years later, restored the piece to the Episcopal Diocese of Richmond where it was mounted on the lawn of Mayo Memorial Church House, diocesan headquarters since 1926. It was then removed from Richmond in 1955, and at some time later was installed in an appropriately historic setting at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in King and Queen County.

James was one of 63 men chosen to accompany Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood in 1716 for the Tramontane Expedition. Purposing to track headwaters of Virginia’s rivers, claim land for the Crown, name and chart geographical sites and observe Indian tribes, Spotswood dubbed his men “Knights of the Golden Horseshoe,” and on ending their travel, presented them with symbolic certificates and watch chain emblems of gold and diamonds in the shape of a horseshoe. An expedition log kept by Lt. John Fontaine tells of the country’s great beauty, and named the only hazards as the occasional bees or snakes.

Authorities in Williamsburg have cited Bloomsbury as the house farthest west in the colony of Virginia at the time it was built between 1720-1722. They also think the original porch, framed into the structure, may be the earliest such architecture known to survive in Virginia. As of the 1990s, the little home was beautifully preserved and accommodated visits by James's descendants through the owner Helen Marie Taylor.

At the time Bloomsbury was under construction Taylor was 48 and he and Martha had eight children, from 22 down to four years. Eldest daughters Frances and Martha were still at home, engaged to be married. The ninth child, Mildred was born two years after the family occupied their new home.

Some years before James II’s death he presented Bloomsbury to his eldest son, James III, and at the same time provided adjacent 1,000 acre parcels for his sons Zachary, George, and Erasmus. Estimates vary on when James II gave Bloomsbury to his eldest son, James III, but it was probably in 1722, seven years before James II's death.

James and Martha are buried at Greenfield

Greenfield was at one time part of James Taylor II's estate. Following his death, he divided his vast holdings among his children. His son, Erasmus Taylor, received Greenfield. The large plantation home still exists and was being renovated in 2014. All legible grave markers were photographed in September 2014.

History of James (II) Taylor (1675 - 1729) by Garry Bryant

James Taylor (II)
Colonel, Burgess, Sheriff, Knight of Golden Horseshoe (1675 - 1729)

Born 14 March 1674/5?, at St. Stephen’s Parish, King & Queen County, Virginia. Married on 23 February 1699, to Martha Thompson, daughter of Col. William Thompson, and wife Ellen Montague, at St. Peter’s Parish, King & Queen County, Virginia (please see Thompson family history). She was born in 16796 and died on 19 November 1762, at Greenville, Orange County, Virginia.7

James’ home was called Monte Bello. He was a surveyor and was given 16000 lbs of tobacco for his services. Home was “Greenfields”. Built Bloomsbury for son. Grandfather of two Presidents, Zachary Taylor and James Madison. Later he became the Surveyor-General of Virginia Colony.12

Surveyor for the counties of King and Queen and King William, and ran the lines dividing the two counties.

ENDNOTES

• 7 A descendent of Sir Roger Thompson, of English birth. From this Thompson family line came 5 US Presidents: James Madison, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, and Benjamin Harrison; Rudolf Loeser, “Larkin Chew of Spotsylvania County and His Family,” The Virginia Genealogist, Volume 47, #1, Jan-Mar, 2003, Whole Number 185. P. 9, note 24.
• 8 Old New Kent County, Virginia, page 441:
• 9 Land Patent Book #3, pages 399, 504, 528, 548.
• 10 Executive Journals of Council of Colonial Virginia, Vol 1, page 412, Vol 3,pages 322, 340; Lyon Gardiner Tyler, L.L.D., Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography. Volumes I-4. (Baltimore: Geinealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1998) “James Taylor,” P. 337. (FHL-USA/CAN 975.5 D3tl 1998 v. 1.)
• 11 Colonial Families of the Southern States of America, page 506-7: Of Orange Co., Va, b 1670; d. 26 Jun 1729; an influential citizen of affairs of both Church and State.
• 12 The Compendium of American Genealogy, First Families of America, Vol 7, page 26: Memebr of Burgesses, King and Queen County, VA, 1702-14; Surveyor of Virginia; Colonel, Orange County, VA, miltia; VA Colonial Abstracts, Vol 14, page 20, King & Queen County, VA; Land mentioned in will of Richard Gregory dated 2/17/1700-01, Essex Co., VA. Land said to be on Matapony River and in this case was adjoining land Richard Gregory willed his daughter Sarah Gregory (Borne). Taylor is named as Capt. James Taylor.
• 13 Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia, Douglas, page 98: James, son of James of Carlisle, took up lands in Orange and was a first settler. He was the father of Frances, wife of Ambrose Madison and grandmother of the President. He had four sons, James, George, Zachary, and Erasmus.
• 14 Presidential Families of the US, Burke: Of Caroline, King and Queen and Orange Counties, Virginia. Colonel of the Militia, member of Virginia House of Burgesses, Surveyor-General of the Colony: Genealogies of Virginia Families, Vol III, page 558.

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..2.3. JAMES TAYLOR(#2) & MARTHA THOMPSONb. ca 1679 - d. 11-25-1761...

Children:

• ...3.1. Zachary TAYLOR(#3) b. - d. ? m. Elizabeth LEE
• ...3.2. George TAYLOR b. - d. ? m. #1 Rachel GIBSON m. #2 Sarah TALIAFERRO1 b. - d.
• ...3.3. Erasmus TAYLOR b. 09-05-1715 - d. ? m. Jane MOORE
• ...3.4. Frances TAYLOR b. - d. - m. (08-2-1741) Ambrose MADISON
• ...3.5. Martha TAYLOR b. - d. ? m. Thomas CHEW
• ...3.6. Tabitha TAYLOR b. 1712 - d. ? m. ? WILD
• ...3.7. Hannah TAYLOR b. 1713 - d. ? - m. ? BATTAILE
• ...3.8. Mildred TAYLOR b. 1724 - d. ? - m. ? THOMAS
• ...3.9. JAMES TAYLOR(#3) b. 12-27-1732 - d. - m. #1 ALICE THORNTON ? McGRATH m. #2 Mary GREGORY

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References

• James Taylor I Descendants Association: The Taylor Family Tree (on linen), by Steve Taylor link tree scan Scan
• Library of Virginia Online Catalog: Taylor family Bible record, 1668-1906 Link%
• Library of Virginia - Taylor Family Bible record http://image.lva.virginia.gov/Bible/27558.pdf
• http://www.jtiassociation.org/
• Updated from WikiTree Genealogy via wife Martha Taylor (born Thompson) by SmartCopy: Feb 1 2015, 23:10:42 UTC
• https://books.google.com/books?id=PXEnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT1&lpg=PT1&dq=Th...
• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: Sep 3 2018, 3:13:39 UTC
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_the_Golden_Horseshoe_Exped...
• http://memory.loc.gov/service/gdc/scd0001/2008/20080825001so/200808...
• https://www.archives.com/genealogy/president-madison.html
• http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=18531269