Zachary Taylor (1784 - 1850)

Born 24 Nov 1784 in Barboursville, Montebello, Orange County, Virginia, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Margaret Mackall (Smith) Taylor — married 21 Jun 1810 in Louisville, Jefferson Co., Kentucky, USA

Descendants

Died 9 Jul 1850 at age 65 in White House, Washington, District of Columbia, United States

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Zachary Taylor was the President of the United States. Join: US Presidents Project Discuss: presidents

Preceded by 11th President James K. Polk

Zachary Taylor 12th President of the United States 1849 –1850

Succeeded by 13th President Millard Fillmore

Biography

Descendant of Isaac Allerton and William Brewster, Pilgrims.

President Zachary Taylor served in the United States Army in the War of 1812
Service started: 1808
Unit(s):
Service ended: 1849

President Zachary Taylor served with the United States Army during the Mexican-American War
Service Started: 1808
Unit(s): unknown
Service Ended: 1849

Zachary Taylor is Notable.

Zachary Taylor (24 November 1784 – 09 July 1850) was the 12th President of the United States (1849–1850) and an American military leader. Initially uninterested in politics, Taylor ran as a Whig in the 1848 presidential election, defeating Lewis Cass. He was a planter and slaveholder based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Taylor was born on a plantation in Orange County, Virginia, to a prominent family of planters of English ancestry. He was the third of five surviving sons in his family (a sixth died in infancy), and had three younger sisters. His mother was Sarah Dabney (Strother) Taylor. His father, Richard Taylor, had served as a lieutenant colonel in the American Revolution. Taylor was a descendant of Elder William Brewster, the Pilgrim colonist leader of the Plymouth Colony, a Mayflower immigrant, and one of the signers of the Mayflower Compact^[1]; and Isaac Allerton Jr., a colonial merchant and colonel who was the son of Mayflower Pilgrim Isaac Allerton and Fear Brewster. Taylor's second cousin through that line was James Madison ^[2], the fourth president.

Leaving exhausted lands, his family joined the westward migration out of Virginia and settled near what developed as Louisville, Kentucky on the Ohio River. Taylor grew up in a small woodland cabin before his family moved to a brick house with increased prosperity. The rapid growth of Louisville was a boon for Taylor's father, who would come to own 10,000 acres (40 km2) throughout Kentucky by the turn of the century; he held 26 slaves to cultivate the most developed portion of his holdings. There were no formal schools on the Kentucky frontier, and Taylor had a sporadic formal education. A schoolmaster recalled Taylor as a quick learner. His early letters show a weak grasp of spelling and grammar, and his handwriting would later be described as "that of a near illiterate".

Family Life

Two years after being commissioned as a lieutenant in the United States Army, in May 1810 Taylor married Margaret Mackall Smith in Louisville. He purchased his first land that year in Jefferson County, Kentucky. He and Margaret had a total of six children (see below).

Margaret and their children sometimes accompanied Taylor to assignments at forts under his command. At other times, they lived on the plantation in Louisville. In the 1820s, following his purchases of land in Louisiana, the family moved to establish a new home in Baton Rouge. Through the years, Taylor speculated in land and bought many slaves to develop his properties; the Deep South was becoming the cotton kingdom.

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Personal Details

• Born: 24 November 1784, Barboursville, Virginia, USA.

• Died: 09 July 1850^[3] (aged 65), Washington, D.C., U.S., Resting place Zachary Taylor National Cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky, USA.

• Spouse: Margaret Mackall Smith (21 September 1788 – 14 August 1852)
• Name: Zachary Taylor
• Marriage Date: 1810
• Marriage Place: Jefferson, Kentucky^[4]

• Children:
  • Ann Margaret Mackall Taylor (1811-1875)
  • Sarah Knox Taylor (1814–1835)
  • Octavia Pannell Taylor (1816-1820)
  • Margaret Smith Taylor (1819-1820)
  • Mary Elizabeth Taylor (1824–1909)
  • Richard Taylor (1826–1879)

• Later descendants: Richard Taylor's granddaughter, Anita Vincent Stauffer, married into the McIlhenny family of Avery Island, Louisiana, makers of Tabasco hot pepper sauce. John Taylor Wood's great-grandsons and other descendants have had active military and police roles in Canada.

• Zachary Taylor and President James Madison are related as second cousins

• Religion: Episcopal

Political Career

• 12th President of the United States (04 March 1849 – 09 July 1850)

⇐ Preceded by 11th President James Polk

⇒Succeeded by 13th President Millard Fillmore

• Political party: Whig

• Profession: Major general

Military Service

Known as "Old Rough and Ready," Taylor had a 40-year military career in the United States Army, serving in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, and the Second Seminole War. He achieved fame leading American troops to victory in the Battle of Palo Alto and the Battle of Monterrey during the Mexican–American War.

• Military service Allegiance United States

• Service/branch: United States Army (1808–1849)

• Highest Rank Achieved: Major general

• Commands Army of Occupation

• Battles/wars

• War of 1812

• Siege of Fort Harrison
• Battle of Wild Cat Creek
• Battle of Credit Island

• Black Hawk War
• Second Seminole War

• Battle of Lake Okeechobee

• Mexican–American War

• Battle of Palo Alto
• Battle of Resaca de la Palma
• Battle of Monterrey
• Battle of Buena Vista

Most Distant Known Ancestors

Paternal James Taylor Link to 10 Generation Paternal Chart

Maternal Sarah Dabney Strother Link to 10 Generation Maternal Chart

Mayflower Connection

(4th Great grandfather of Zachary)
Elder William Brewster a passenger on the Mayflower

(3rd Great grandparents of Zachary)

Isaac Allerton (1585-1658) and

Fear Brewster (1606-)

(2nd Great grandparents)

Isaac Allerton, Jr. (-1702) and

Elizabeth Willoughby (1635-)

(Great grandparents)

Hancock Lee (1653-1729) and

Sarah Allerton (1670-1731)

(Grandparents)

Zachary Taylor (1707-bef.1768) and

Elizabeth Lee (1707-c1750)

(Parents of Zachary)

Richard Lee Taylor (1744-1829) and

Sarah Dabney Strother (1760-1822)

Zachary Taylor (1784-1850)

Legacy

• Taylor County in four US states - Florida, Georgia, Iowa and Kentucky - are named in President Taylor's honor.

External Links

• Zachary Taylor resting place on Wikipedia
• Zachary Taylor National Cemetery on WikiTree
• Zachary Taylor at Wikipedia
• Wikidata: Item Q11896

Sources

1. ↑ https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Special:Relationship&action=calculate&person1Name=Taylor-223&person2Name=Brewster-4
2. ↑ Show relationship in WikiTree
3. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #1023 : Zachary Taylor Gravestone
4. ↑ "Kentucky Marriages, 1785-1979," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/F43L-94T : accessed 10 Apr 2014), Zachary Taylor and Margaret Smith, 1810; citing Jefferson, Kentucky, reference bk 1 p 67; FHL microfilm 482706. Indexing Project (Batch) Number: M00574-7 System Origin: Kentucky-EASy GS Film number: 482706 Reference ID: bk 1 p 67

• 1850 Census: "1850 United States Federal Census"
  The National Archives in Washington D.C.; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29; Series Number: M432; Residence Date: 1850; Home in 1850: Washington Ward 1, Washington, District of Columbia; Roll: 56; Page: 63a; Line Number: 1
  Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 8054 #19364711
  Backay Faylor (66), President Us, in Washington Ward 1, Washington, District of Columbia, USA. Born in Virginia.

• Mayflower Families Vol. 17 p. 188
• Portrait & Bio. Album of Mahaska Co. IA (1887)
• Marriages and Deaths, The New England Historical & Genealogical Register (NEHGS, Boston, Mass., 1850) Vol. 4, Page 375.

• He died 9 Jul 1850 at 10:35 pm.

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