Colonial families of Philadelphia, Volume II, Part 52

Author: Jordan, John Woolf, 1840-1921, ed
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: New York : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 978

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with the regulators, were requested by the Philadelphia City Council "to imploy Jacob Taylor to run out the seven streets of this city, and that they cause the same to be staked out to prevent any incroachment that may happen for ye want there- of." A draft of this survey is still among the Taylor papers. In 1722 he accom- panied Governor Keith to locate lands west of the Susquehanna River, in the belt so long in dispute between Pennsylvania and Maryland. In 1729 he surveyed for the proprietor "Conestoge Manor," in what is now Lancaster county.

But while all his work as Surveyor General seems to have been well done, that which brought him most esteem and praise among his contemporaries was in the direction of literature, and whilst his attempts in that line are as likely now to create amusement as any other emotion, they are of interest as showing what were the highest attainments of the literary art in those days, which entitled a man in the estimation of his fellows to the hope of lasting renown. He compiled from his own original writings, from the contributions of his fellow citizens, and from standard works, an almanac, to the first number of which, for 1702, James Logan alludes in the letter quoted above. This he continued to publish through the rest of his life. This almanac antedated Franklin's "Poor Richard's Almanac" by thirty-one years. An almanac in these days is an unimportant affair, but in the beginning of the eighteenth century it was the sole literary equipment of many a household, the Bible being perhaps the second book in frequency of possession, and a book or two of theology the third and fourth.

Paul Leicester Ford, in his introduction to the republication of some of Benja- min Franklin's wise and witty sayings, originally published in "Poor Richard's Almanac," says: "Franklin, in his Almanac for 1747, gives this opinion of Jacob Taylor. In 1746, by the death of that ornament and head of our profession, Mr. Jacob Taylor, who for upwards of forty years (with some few intermissions only) supplied the good people of this and the neighboring colonies with the most complete ephemeris and the most accurate calculations that have hitherto appear- ed in America, and who was said to have assisted in the preparation of 'Poor Richard's Alamanac,' the most serious rival of the latter was removed." He says further of Jacob Taylor, in the same article, "He was an ingenious mathematician, as well as an expert and skillful astronomer, and moreover, no mean philosopher ; but what is more than all-he was a pious and honest man. Requiescat in pace." He announces that "Since my friend Taylor is no more, whose ephemerides so long and agreeably served and entertained these provinces, I have taken the liberty to imitate his well known method." He follows this notice by nineteen lines of poetry apostrophizing Taylor's blest spirit now gone into the starry heavens and asking his guidance there, but he asks this rather apparently for astronomical pur- poses than for any spiritual end.

The "accurate calculations" are said to have been made by Jacob Taylor him- self, and this alone showed an amount of mathematical and astronomical knowl- edge which was probably possessed by few people at that time, so that his contem- poraries were probably right in considering him one of the most learned men in the country. He probably wrote a large part of the literary contents also, but as the almanac became famous, many of the aspiring writers of his time contributed "copy" which they hoped he would find good enough to print. The almanac evi- dently, in addition to all its other uses, filled the place taken now by the magazines,

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and many young birds assayed in its pages to try their wings for their first flights in literature.

Among the papers contributed to this almanac are some of scientific interest. Thomas Godfrey, whose invention of the sextant, November, 1730, conferred honor on the city in which he lived, and has ever since proved the greatest of boons to all who navigate the seas, sends him, under date of November 4, 1741, observations made with a twelve-foot telescope of the transits behind the moon,. of Jupiter on March 12, 1741, and of Venus, October 12, 1741, which phenomena, says Godfrey, "You had foretold in your almanac."

When Jacob Taylor reached his sixty-first year he was probably no longer able to lead so active a life as the duties of the Surveyor General's office required, and his other occupations may have been more congenial to his tastes. He retired from the position and Benjamin Eastburn was commissioned his successor, Octo- ber 29, 1733.

He ended his life, March 2, 1746, at the house of his nephew, Dr. John Taylor, then his nearest living relative. He did not marry.

ISAAC TAYLOR was a "practitioner of physic," as well as a surveyor. As there was no school of medicine in America in his youth, and the art and mystery of healing had therefore to be handed on from physicians who had been educated in the older countries to their pupils, it is probable that he gained his knowledge from his cousin, Israel Taylor. He was too intelligent a man to have entered on the practice of that profession without proper instruction, and his calling as a physician was admitted, and was recognized in some of the documents that still survive.

His work as a surveyor, however, is that to which most of the existing records relate. He was, in 1701, appointed Deputy Surveyor for Chester county, succeed- ing Henry Hollingsworth, and he was actively engaged during the rest of his life in the duties pertaining to that office. Soon after his appointment he was com- missioned, on the part of Pennsylvania, October 28, 1701, to run the boundary line dividing Delaware and Pennsylvania, Thomas Pierson, Surveyor of New Castle county, holding a similar commission for Delaware. The warrant for the work required the surveyors "to meet the magistrates of the two counties, and in their presence to admeasure and survey from the town of New Castle the distance of twelve miles in a right line up ye said river and from ye said distance according to ye King's letters patent and deed from the Duke, and ye said circular line to be well marked, two-thirds part of ye semi-circle." The work was performed De- cember 4, 1701, and Ashmead, in his "History of Delaware County," says that this survey is the only one ever made of the circular boundary between Delaware and Pennsylvania.

He held various offices in the county and under the Proprietor. James Logan, as Receiver General for the Proprietor appointed him, December 11, 1704, Col- lector of Quit Rents for the county of Chester. The latest record of his discharge of the duties of this position is in 1711. He was appointed a Justice, 1719, and was reappointed from time to time till his death, 1728. He was County Commis- sioner of Chester county from 1726 till his death. He was a member of Pennsyl- vania Assembly, 1704-5-10-12-19-21-22.

Isaac Taylor was a quiet man, his career not so full of interest as that of his brother, Jacob, and not so intense as that of his son, John, but he filled creditably all positions in which he was placed and was a worthy and esteemed citizen. His great-

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granddaughter, Mrs. William Morris, represents that "They must have been accus- tomed to pretty high living, for their house in Thornbury was superior to houses in this country generally, and they had a separate house for their servants. Isaac's wife also kept a dressing maid." He was a large landholder, his home being in Thornbury township, Delaware county, in which county all of his estates lay.

Isaac Taylor's wife, Martha, was a daughter of Philip Roman, born about 1645, in Wiltshire, England, died January 11, 1730, and Martha Harper. They were married 1669, and emigrated, 1682, settling at Marcus Hook, Delaware county, Pennsylvania. He was, as Dr. Smith says in his "History of Delaware County," "A man of ability, and exercised a good deal of influence both in the Society of Friends of which he was a member, and also in the community." He was a mem- ber of Assembly, 1692-5, and a Justice of Chester county, appointed 1698, and again 1703. He is very frequently mentioned in the records of his time, and took quite an important part in the business of the community in which he lived. His wife, Martha Harper, came over with him, with eight children, but died with three of her children, probably of some malignant fever, very soon after landing, in the fall of 1682. Martha Roman, his third child, born about 1674, married Isaac Tay- lor, January, 1695, and died January, 1735.

Issue of Isaac and Martha (Roman) Taylor:

JOHN TAYLOR, b. 1698; m. (first) Sept. 10, 1718; (second) Oct., 1734; d. 1756; Jacob Taylor, b. about 1700; m. Nov. 27, 1728; d. about 1764; Philip Taylor, b. about 1702, d. unm., about 1749;

Ann Taylor, b. about 1705; m. 1733;

Mary Taylor, b. about 1706; m. after 1732.

The record of JOHN TAYLOR's life is quite voluminous. He kept an account of all his affairs and these accounts are still in existence. He adopted his father's profession, and is styled in some of the existing papers, "Practitioner of Physick." In his voluminous memorandum books he recites the remedies he used, such as camphor, sal epsom, ipecacuanha, sal vit. Mercurius dulc., calomel, gum Arabic and tart. emetic, vigorous remedies and no doubt applied in heroic doses. He is said to have been the only practicing physician between Chester and Lancaster, so that he was probably not called in for trifling ailments.

He was a farmer on a large scale. His home farm is said to have contained one thousand two hundred acres, and he followed his father's example of picking up choice pieces of ground.

John Taylor held many positions in the service of the colony. He was Sheriff of the county by annual appointment of the Governor, 1720-31, a longer time than the office has been held by any other man ; he was a member of Assembly, 1730-31, and a Justice of the Peace, appointed 1741, and holding office a number of years. There are among his papers many communications to the authorities in regard to matters of public interest, such as proposing changes in the manner of govern- ment. He was largely engaged in the manufacture of iron at Sarum Forge, on Chester Creek. This industry, which dates back of 1718, fell into John Taylor's hands shortly after his marriage, 1718. As early as 1720, and occasionally for some years after, he was engaged in making surveys of iron ore lands for Nutt and Branson, about the forks of French Creek, in Coventry township, in which locality Reading and Warwick furnaces were started a few years after. The

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industry developed later by the addition of a rolling and slitting mill, 1746, which was the first of such mills built in Pennsylvania. This mill produced bar iron, hoop iron, sheet iron, nail rods for horse shoes, and deck nails for ship building.

Soon after the erection of the mill, his storekeeper, who was probably his son, Isaac Taylor, on one of his periodical visits to England, after pricing nails in Liverpool, told the merchant with whom he was dealing that he could buy them cheaper at Taylor's mill in Pennsylvania. This alarmed the English ironmasters and led to a Parliamentary inquiry as to the condition of the iron manufacture in the colonies. Pending this inquiry, however, an order reached Pennsylvania be- fore Taylor's storekeeper returned, forbidding erection of any more iron works.

In due time, September 18, 1750, John Owen, Sheriff of Chester county, certi- fied to James Hamilton, Lieutenant-Governor, as the result of this inquiry, "That there is but one mill or engine for slitting or rolling iron within the county afore- said, which is situate in Thornbury township, and was erected in the year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty-six by John Taylor the present proprietor." The order in regard to the erection of iron mills did not forbid the working of those already in existence, and these works were kept in repair and in operation, though sometimes running at a loss, until after the Revolution. In addition to the forge and the rolling and slitting mill, John Taylor had on Chester Creek, a grist- mill and a sawmill, each having apparently its own dam for the creation of a water-power, the several industries being extended along the creek for a distance of about a mile. The sawmill only produced lumber for local consumption, but as John Taylor was an exporter of flour, the gristmill had evidently a more ex- tensive market. His factor, Robert Moulder, of Chester, in 1755, besides advising him that the West Indies is a good market for his flour, beef, and pork, tells him that he will do well to make a shipment or iron there, as the freight is but one pound per ton, and it will bring there thirty pounds per ton.

The most numerous records of John Taylor's activities relate, however, to his surveyor's work. He was at first his father's deputy surveyor, but after his death, 1728, he succeeded him as Surveyor of Chester county, which then extended to the Susquehanna River, including the present Lancaster county. He was ordered to run the boundary which set off Lancaster county, February, 1729, but he con- tinued to act as Surveyor for Lancaster county also. The whole district was fast settling up. Before the proprietor could make deeds, the lands must be surveyed, his own numerous manors needed to be laid out, in order that his grants to settlers might not conflict with them, so that there was a constant demand for surveys on the part of the proprietor, and John Taylor, finally sent in his resignation, 1740, because he was pushed too hard to accomplish more than a man could do. The boundaries between Maryland and Pennsylvania, which were in dispute from 1680 till Mason and Dixon ran the final line in 1764-7, were the subject of negotiations between the proprietors of the two provinces, and an agreement as to the dividing line was reached, with John Taylor, May 10, 1732, was commissioned to trace on the ground. October 19, 1734, the proprietors, John and Thomas Penn, directed "Samuel Blunston, Esq., Clerk of our County of Lancaster and John Taylor, Sur- veyor of the said County, to go to the Susquehanna, on the west side of which you are, by the best methods you can, to find a station in the Parallel of Latitude that is fifteeen miles south of the southernmost part of our City of Philadelphia and from thence extend a line due west as far as the branch of Patowmac ( Potomac)

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called Conegochega (Conococheague) and farther if when at that place you shall judge it necessary." These lines were run by Taylor, October and November, 1734.

His life must have been full of activity. It showed many evidences of impera- tiveness of disposition, and seems to have worn him out before his time, for he was but fifty-eight years of age at the time of his death.

John Taylor's first wife, Mary Baker, who was mother of all his children, was the eldest child of John Worrilow and Anne Maris. John Worrilow was born about 1668, and died 1726. His father, Thomas Worrilow, was originally a resi- dent of Yorkshire, England, who emigrated in 1688 with his wife, Jane, whom he had married 1667, and settled in Edgmont township, Delaware county, Pennsyl- vania. After the death of his first wife he removed to Philadelphia, and lived on the north side of Chestnut street, west of Third street, till his death, May, 1709.

The wife of John Worrilow, Anne, born August 18, 1667, was a daughter of George and Alice Maris, of Springfield township, Delaware county, Pennsylvania. George Maris was born about 1632, married about 1659, and died January 15, 1706. He was a Quaker of Inkborough, Worcestershire, England, where, in 1670, he had suffered persecution for his faith. He came to Pennsylvania, 1683, with his wife, Alice, and six children. He held many public trusts in Pennsylvania, was a Justice of the Court, appointed in 1682-85-89, and member of the Legisla- ture, 1684-87, and 1690-3. His wife died March 11, 1699.

Mary Worrilow, John Worrilow's daughter, born January 9, 1692, married (first), May 18, 1709, Joseph Baker, Jr., son of Joseph and Mary Baker, of Edg- mont, Shropshire, England, who emigrated to Edgmont, Chester county, Pennsyl- vania, 1684. Joseph Baker, Jr., died February, 1717. His widow married (sec- ond) John Taylor, September 10, 1718, and died 1733. She was heiress to a large property. Their home was in Thornbury, Delaware county, Pennsylvania. They had issue, the first three of their children being:

Isaac Taylor, b. 1719; m. Jan., 1742; d. Nov., 1745;

JOHN TAYLOR, b. 1721; m. 1744; d. 1761 ;

Philip Taylor, m. Oct. 26, 1748; d. 1754.

JOHN TAYLOR seems to have been dwarfed by his father's activity. He was a man of large estate, but held no public positions, and died too early to leave much mark. His life seems to have been that of a well-to-do gentleman farmer. His wife, Sarah Worrall, born September 19, 1722, died April 23, 1780, was the fifth child of John Worrall and Sarah Goodwin.

John Worrall, born 1657, died April 19, 1742, was born in Oare, Berkshire, England, and emigrated to Pennsylvania, 1682, reaching here a short time before the first coming of William Penn. He lived first in Philadelphia, where he took up a whole square on Market street, besides two thousand acres of land in New Jersey, and one thousand acres in Middletown township, Delaware county, Penn- sylvania. He was a member of the Governor's Council, 1690; of Pennsylvania Legislature, 1717. He was a man of large means.

His second wife, Sarah, was a daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Goodwin. Thomas Goodwin, born about 1650, lived at Llandewi Brefi, in Cardiganshire, Wales, whence he emigrated, 1708, with his wife, whom he had married about 1680, and his children. His wife was born 1652, and died November 10, 1739. They settled in Pennsylvania, Edgmont township, Chester county.

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Their daughter, Sarah Worrall, was after her marriage a Quaker preacher. In this capacity she visited England and Ireland, first in 1724. On the second visit, 1753, she was accompanied by Elizabeth Ashbridge, who died at Waterford, Ire- land. Sarah Worrall continued her journey to Cork, and in visiting a part of that City, where there was great poverty and destitution, took a contagious disease then prevailing-supposed to have been smallpox-and died there.

John Worrall and Sarah Goodwin had nine children, of whom the fifth was Sarah Worrall, who married John Taylor.

Issue of John and Sarah (Worrall) Taylor:

MARY WORRALL TAYLOR, b. April 8, 1745; m. Oct. 2, 1766; d. Nov. 30, 1830;

Isaac Taylor, b. Oct. 18, 1747; m. about 1767; d. about 1781 ;

Sarah Taylor, b. January 25, 1751; m. Feb. 28, 1768; d. Oct. 2, 1836.

The strength of the Taylor family seemed in this generation to pass to the female side, and MARY WORRALL TAYLOR was quite a remarkable woman. She married at twenty-one, her family increased rapidly, and for the first ten years after her marriage her life was the ordinary life of a prosperous matron of the time, except that her husband's business interests, and his absorption in public affairs, took him much from home and left the management of the estate some- what in her hands. After the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, which took him wholly away, the care of the farm, and of the Sarum Iron Works, fell largely upon her shoulders. Her letters reporting to him her care of the property, and her relatives' and neighbors' comments on her management, show that she took up her unaccustomed work vigorously and pursued it faithfully. When her hus- band was taken prisoner, September, 1777, she defended her own household from the British troops who came to despoil it. She was assiduous in getting such com- forts to him in Philadelphia as she was permitted to take there, and she carried reports of the sufferings of the prisoners to General Washington, who was then encamped at White Marsh, and repeatedly visited Valley Forge, to carry to the suffering soldiers there contributions to their comfort. She kept everything mov- ing at home. Her custom was in the summer to have her horse saddled by day- light, ride over the farm giving directions to the workmen, go down to Chester Creek to the iron works and return home by breakfast time, to give the needed care to her children, her servants and her household affairs. She outlived her hus- band thirty-eight years, and her large family of children and grandchildren found at her home in Thornbury, which was their frequent rendezvous, the delight that comes from love and sympathy, and to the end of their lives there was among them an unanimous chorus of praise and admiration of their "Grandma Frazer." After her husband's death, 1792, she lived at Thornbury till about 1825, when she removed to the house of her daughter, Mary(Mrs. Joseph Smith), with whom she spent the rest of her life.

Issue of Persifor and Mary (Worrall Taylor) Fraser:

Sarah Frazer, b. Jan. 11, 1769, d. March 3, 1841 ;

ROBERT FRAZER, b. Ang. 30, 1771 ; m. (first) May 3, 1798; (second) Oct. 15, 1803; (third) Feb. II, 1818; d. Jan. 20, 1821;

Mary Ann Frazer, b. Feb. 4, 1774; m. Oct. 16, 1794; d. Feb. 9, 1845;

PERSIFOR FRAZER, b. Feb. 26, 1776, d. unm., Sept. 29, 1798;

Martha Frazer, b. May 22, 1778, d. July 20, 1778;

Mary Frazer, b. Jan. 14, 1780; m. Feb. 27, 1800; d. May 23, 1862;

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John Frazer, b. Dec. 27, 1781, d. Aug. 3, 1783;

Martha Frazer, b. Oct. 14, 1783; m. Oct. 15, 1818; d. Jan. 27, 1867 ;

Elizabeth Frazer, b. May 17, 1786, d. May 13, 1788;

Elizabeth Frazer, b. Dec. 17, 1788; m. Jan. 9, 1812; d. April 25, 1857.

ROBERT FRAZER was born in Middletown township. He received an unusually good education and was in possession of a law library imported from England at a cost of fioo, when he commenced the practice of law at Chester, where he was admitted to practice, July 30, 1792. He lived in Chester county till 1807, when he removed to Philadelphia, where he remained till after the death of his second wife, who died 1814, when he again removed to Chester county to a farm about ten miles from Chester, where he spent the rest of his life. He was leading mem- ber of the Bar of Chester County. He was Deputy Attorney General, May, 1793- February, 1800, and February-November, 1816.

His second wife, Elizabeth Fries, mother of all his children, except the young- est, was a daughter of John and Ann Fries, of Arch street, Philadelphia. She was born June 16, 1778, and died June 19, 1815.

PERSIFOR FRAZER was cashier of first United States Bank. In the summer of 1798 the yellow fever raged in Philadelphia, the president of the bank died, and the institution was removed to Germantown. The removal was made in Septem- ber, and Persifor Frazer, who had exerted himself greatly in making the removal, took yellow fever and died.

Mary Ann Frazer, as has been said, married Jonathan Smith, and Mary Frazer married Jonathan's brother, Joseph Smith.

Issue of Joseph and Mary (Fraser) Smith:

ELIZABETH WRIGHT SMITH, b. Jan. 6, 1801, d. unm., Dec. 27, 1885;

EMMA VAUGHAN SMITH, b. Dec. 3, 1802; m. Sept. 28, 1832; d. Feb. 17, 1843;

MARIANNE SMITH, b. April 2, 1805; m. April 4, 1833; d. March 12, 1890;

PERSIFOR FRAZER SMITH, b. Jan. 23, 1808; m. July 24, 1833; d. May 25, 1882; Martha Smith, b. Jan. 13, 1810, d. unm., Nov. 4, 1872;

VAUGHAN SMITH, b. Feb. 14, 1812; m. Sept. 1, 1842; d. Nov. 21, 1891; Rhoda Wright Smith, b. Aug. 22, 1817, d. unm., June 27, 1903.

ELIZABETH WRIGHT SMITH was a handsome woman with a good deal of charm and sprightliness, but her best claim to the gratitude of posterity is that by putting on paper a number of the family traditions, and much of the family history, she preserved much that would otherwise have been lost.

. EMMA VAUGHAN SMITH married Henry Augustus Riley, born November 21, 1801, died March 17, 1878. He was a son of Isaac Riley, a merchant of New York, and Hannah Alsop, both descended from old New England families. Mr. Riley was well educated and at the age of thirty-one had studied law, medicine and theology. He spent over thirty years of his life as the pastor of Presbyterian churches, mostly at Montrose, Pennsylvania, and after resigning, 1863, resumed to some extent the practice of medicine.

MARIANNE SMITH was a woman of great industry and though of delicate health until middle age, she spent her life in pursuits in which she was useful and help- ful to others. She married Dr. Stephen Harris, whose career is sketched else- where in this account.

PERSIFOR FRAZER SMITH graduated University of Pennsylvania, 1823, and was admitted to practice law, November 3, 1829. He was State Attorney for Delaware

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county, 1832; Clerk of Orphans' Court of Chester County, 1835; member of Pennsylvania Legislature from 1861-4, and Reporter of Supreme Court of Penn- sylvania, 1866-76. He was a learned and able lawyer, a man of strong feeling and earnest nature, and a determined and uncompromising patriot during the Civil War. His wife, Thomasine Susan, born June 24, 1812, died August 2, 1895, was a daughter of Dr. George A. Fairlamb, of Downingtown, Pennsylvania, and his wife, Thomasine Whelen.

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Colonial families of Philadelphia, Volume II, Part 52

Author: Jordan, John Woolf, 1840-1921, ed Publication date: 1911 Publisher: New York : Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 978

Author: Jordan, John Woolf, 1840-1921, ed
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: New York : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 978