The Taylors of...All Over the Place -- Part 1

David W. and Elizabeth Taylor, with
grandson David W. Taylor

In the last post about the David W. Taylor House, I promised a more indepth look at the Taylor family
to which he belonged. Not exactly coincidentally, my wife also happens to belong to that family (David W. is her 3rd Great Grandfather). This line of Taylors has a long history, and much of it (thankfully) has been fairly well-documented. My father-in-law, David Starkey, some years back himself wrote a piece about the Taylor line, which I know I read but didn't fully appreciate at the time. Now I do.

In all the documentation about the Taylors, most of it seemed to focus on the time that most of them spent in Pennsylvania, and less on their time in Delaware. I had not realized the impact these Taylors had in Delaware, and in Mill Creek Hundred specifically, until recently. As it turns out, even in my wife's direct line, they spent a good deal of time in Mill Creek, Christiana, and Brandywine Hundreds. They also made notable contributions in the Chadds Ford area, too. Here's a look at part of their story.

The story began (in the New World, at least) in 1682, when Welsh Quaker Thomas Taylor emigrated to William Penn's new colony with his young family. Thomas died soon after the trip, probably from something contracted onboard ship. Fortunately his children survived, and for the next few generations stayed generally in Delaware and Chester Counties. In 1773, Thomas' great grandson John Taylor, then living in Pennsbury township, had a son named William. It was William, third of fourteen children, who first moved the short distance south into Delaware, and into Mill Creek Hundred.

William married in 1798 to Ann Mercer, daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Mercer (as a shorthand, just assume about ever othery woman here is named Elizabeth -- only a slight exaggeration). I don't know where they lived the first ten years, but in 1808 William purchased 137 acres in MCH and Kennett from David Mercer of Ohio. Mercer was probably Ann's uncle or grandfather. (The deed states that Taylor was "of Mill Creek Hundred", so they may have already been living on the farm, perhaps since their marriage.) The tract was located north of Hockessin, near Lee and Benge Roads, catty corner from HB Dupont Middle School. I can't find a sale of this property, but Taylor likely sold it about 1814, when he moved his family about two miles due south to a new farm.

Approximate bounds of William Taylor's farm from 1808 to 1814
(Metes and bounds researched by Walt Chiquoine)

William Taylor, who was also a Quaker minister, purchased 137 acres along Brackenville Road (mostly) west of Mill Creek Road. There, he and Ann raised their 14(!) children, most of whom survived into adulthood. Many of them also remained in the area, and a few have already popped up in past posts. For example, eldest child Samuel Taylor's property was later incorporated into the North Star Farm of Stephen Mitchell, and two of his daughters married said Mitchell (not at the same time...they were Quakers not Mormons). Some of William's daughters married into families like the Mendenhalls and Sharplesses.

Original bounds of the 137 acres purchased in 1814. Mark indicates
location of the farmhouse, probably razed early 20th Century
(Metes and bounds researched by Walt Chiquoine)

When William Taylor died in 1829, he bequeathed his farm to second son Job (Samuel presumably already had his own). Job and wife Susanna Yeatman had but one child -- John Yeatman Taylor. John was a Naval doctor, who would later go on to serve as medical director for the US Navy and would retire as a Rear Admiral. (John's daughter Charlotte would become a writer and novelist.) So when Job died in 1846, Susanna and John sold the farm out of the family, to John Hanna.

However, the child of William Taylor that interests us the most here is David Wilson Taylor, 12th of 14, born on the Brackenville Road farm in 1819. A later history of Delaware County says of him -- "He spent his early years at the family home, leaving when he was 19 years of age and travelling extensively through the west. Returning east, he purchased farms in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, and New Jersey, successively, following the farmer's occupation until death."  For the most part I don't know where his farms were in the other states, but in 1852 David W. purchased a farm in Christiana Hundred near Centreville, on which he would build a new stone house. And as stated in the David W. Taylor House and Dilworth Farm post, Taylor sold this farm in 1867.

His next move, whether it was physical or just financial, is the only out-of-state one of which I can find even the slimmest of mentions. As you can see in the clipping below (from the August 21, 1867 Alexandria Gazette), a "David W. Taylor of Newcastle (sic), Delaware" purchased an 837 acre farm in Caroline County, Virginia. Since the history book says he bought next in Virginia and his name and home are "correct" here, I have to assume this was our David W. Taylor. Caroline County, VA is about halfway between Washington, DC and Richmond -- I-95 now cuts through its western end. As far as I can tell, the county is mostly known for two Civil War-era deaths. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson died at nearby Guinea Station in 1863, and John Wilkes Booth was captured and killed near Port Royal on the northern end of the county in 1865.

There are two possibilities when it comes to this farm and the Taylors. One is that the family moved all the way down to Virginia for a few years and then came back. I frustratingly can't find them in the 1870 Census, but the real estate ad below from January 1873 shows they were living near Centerville by then. The farm mentioned in the ad is east of Centreville, between Center Meeting and Twaddell Mill Roads. David did not own the farm, but seems to have been a tenant farmer there. If I had to guess (and it's my blog, so yes, I do), I'd say that David bought the Virginia farm as an investment and never moved there. This was still only a few years after the war, and land may have been cheap in the area. Perhaps with his money tied up in Virginia, he chose to rent a farm instead in Delaware.

About the only other purchase I can find for David W. Taylor is a ten acre lot purchased from the Twaddell family, probably in northeastern Christiana Hundred. This may have been another investment, as David and family are shown in 1880 as living back in MCH in Little Baltimore, listed directly above William H. Walker (maybe he even used the Mystery Structure). When David Wilson Taylor died in 1895, he was living with one of his sons near Hockessin (Levis, I think, although widow Elizabeth was with Newton in 1900). He was interred at the cemetery at the Hockessin Friends Meeting House.

I hope you'll allow me to continue this self-indulgent look into the Taylor family in the next post, when we'll follow David W. Taylor's second son, Pusey Philips Taylor (my wife's Great-great grandfather). Pusey and his family will leave their mark in MCH, Christiana Hundred, and finally in Brandywine Hundred. In the middle they'll intersect with local and national history in nearby Chadds Ford. So if you're interested in that beautiful area, check out the next post as we conclude our look at the Taylors of...all over the place.