Titus Taylor (1755 - 1825)

Born 22 Nov 1755 in Chester County, Pennsylvania, British Colonial America

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 3 Apr 1825 at age 69 in Westtown, Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States

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Titus Taylor is a DAR Patriot Ancestor, A113019.

Biography

^[1]Titus Taylor was born on the family farm in Westtown Township November 21, 1755. He married Rebecca Hunt in 1779 contrary to Quaker discipline and was likely disowned by the Society of Friends for it later, although both were Quaker. This could mean they married without their parents’ permission or were married by a secular official or by a clergyman outside their faith.

Taylor served in the Revolution as a private under his younger brother in the Eighth Company of the Seventh Battalion of the Pennsylvania Militia from 1780–1782.

After the war, he returned to farming and politics, and continued to serve actively in the Militia through at least 1793. He held county offices including treasurer, commissioner and sheriff. In private life, he was a stonemason, and built, among other things, an oven for the first jail in West Chester in 1793 and a bridge over the Brandywine the same year.

War of 1812

In 1813, prominent citizens of the borough of West Chester organized a volunteer regiment called the “American Grey”— the Second Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Light Infantry. It was gradually filled with both young and middle-aged men, under the command of Titus Taylor^[2], “a worthy old gentleman of the vicinity.” The company drilled through the autumn of 1814, when the burning of Washington, D.C. forced the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to invite the company to assemble in Philadelphia to defend that city. The company departed West Chester on September 8, 1814, and was commissioned into service as part of the Second Light Infantry Regiment of the Pennsylvania Militia. The company served at Camp Marcus Hook until they were mustered out of service that December.

^[3]Roll Of Capt. Titus Taylor's Co - The American Greys- 1814

Second Regiment of Pa Volunteers Light Infantry, under the command of Co Louis Bache

Sept, 1814 through Dec., 1814

Sergeants; Wm. H. Taylor, from Thornbury; Ziba Darlington, Birmingham; John Painter; John Hall, West Chester

Corporals, John Logan, West Chester; Russell Bibber; Eber Worthington; Henry Myers

Fifer, Jacob Burkess

Drummer, George Davis (colored)

Privates: Bailey, Hiram, Westtown; Brinton, Joseph H.; Brinton, Ethan, Birmingham; Brinton, James; Brinton, Wm, Birmingham; Brinton, John, West Chester; Brinton, Thomas H.; Brinton, Joseph; Black, Robert, West Chester; Cox, Wm; Darlington, Amos, Goshen; Dailey, Wm; DeWolf, Thomas; Ehrenzeller, Jacob; Evenson, eli; Frederick, wm.; Gamble, Robert; Greer, James, Goshen; Gardiner, Archibald, East Cln; Hall, Lewis, East Bradford; Iddings, Joseph; Keehnle, Jacob; Lindsay, John, West Chester; Marshall, Stephen, West Chester; Matlack, Jonathan, Goshen; Matlack, Nathan, West Chester; Morrow, Hiram; Myers, Henry; Nelson, Joseph; Nichols, Isaac; Pierce, Myers; Parry, Caleb; Pearson, Harper, West Chester; Pearson, George, East Caln; Rice, Thomas, East Whiteland; Sweeney, Thomas, West Chester; Shields, Wm. Westtown; Townsend, Wm, East Bradford; Townsend, Granville S.; Taylor, Vernon; Yearsley, Nathan, Thornbury;

Previous research information

Birth
Titus Taylor was born the 22nd day 11th month 1755 in the Delaware Colony, Pennsylvania as recorded in the Concord Monthly Meeting. ^[4] He was the child of Thomas Taylor and Martha Woodward. ^[4]

Marriage and Children
Titus married Rebecca Hunt and they had the following known children ^[5] :

1. William H. Taylor, b. 1st mo 28th day 1780 ^[5]
2. Anthony Taylor, b. 12th mo 29th day 1781 ^[5]
3. Martha Taylor,b. 3rd mo 6th day 1784 ^[5]
4. Ann Taylor, b. 7th mo 1st day 1786 ^[5]
5. Phebe Taylor, b. 2nd mo 25th day 1789 ^[5]
6. Thomas Taylor, b. 1st mo 8th day 1792 ^[5]
7. Caleb Taylor, b. 7th mo 20th day 1794 ^[5]
8. Benjamine Franklin Taylor, b. 5th mo 22nd day 1796 ^[5]
9. Sally Taylor, b. 12th mo 30th day 1797 ^[5]
10. Rebecca Taylor, b. 3rd mo 15th day 1801 ^[5]
11. Joseph Taylor who m. Asseneth Edwards who was born 11 mo. 7th day 1806 ^[5]

Death and Burial
Titus passed away in 1825. ^[6]

Burial: Taylor Family Burying Ground, Westtown,Chester County,Pennsylvania, USA. ^[7] Find A Grave: Memorial #124769839

Notes: This cemetery was initially the burying ground of the Taylor family, who founded it in the early part of the 18th century on land owned by Phillip Taylor, a few hundred yards from a stone house built by the family ca. 1722. It was officially laid out in the will of Thomas Taylor Jr., who described it as:

"The burying ground on my place, being 12 feet one way and 3 perches and 4 feet the other, to be reserved as a burying place forever."

Local legend has it that hundreds of soldiers who fell at the Battle of the Brandywine in 1777 are buried here, though no documentary evidence has been found to corroborate this story.

Early in its history it was opened to any local family who wished to be buried there. Members of the Faucett family, who owned land nearby, were buried there in great number, and it is sometimes referred to as the Faucett Burying Ground.

It accepted burials until about 1876, when it became impossible to bury anyone without disturbing older graves.

Once surrounded by a stone wall and gate, it fell to ruin by the late 19th century. By 1905, only several stones were still visible.

According to the late Westtown farmer Marshall Jones, a resident of the area for over 70 years, the markers from the graveyard were removed during the 1920s or 1930s to be used as steps for the old house nearby. That house was demolished after 1980, with one of those headstones being saved by a West Chester University professor who studied the site.

A marker erected by the Taylor family in 2001 does not mark the cemetery grounds, but stands in an area that is publicly accessible.

Sources

• https://services.dar.org/Public/DAR_Research/search_adb/?action=full&p_id=A113019
• https://services.dar.org/Public/DAR_Research/search_descendants/?action=list&MyPrimary_Seqn=1258485&MyLineageCount=1

1. ↑ https://www.westtownpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/FINAL-2020-01-23-WESTTOWN-BOOK.pdf
2. ↑ https://www.chester.pa-roots.com/military/warof1812/Capt.%20Titus%20Taylor.htm
3. ↑ https://www.chester.pa-roots.com/military/warof1812/Capt.%20Titus%20Taylor.htm
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Birth: "U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935"
   Swarthmore College; Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 2189 #1650477 (accessed 9 July 2023)
   Concord Monthly Meeting, Delaware, Pennsylvania. Titus Taylor born on 22 Nov 1755, child of Thomas Taylor & Martha Taylor, in Delaware, Pennsylvania.
5. ↑ ^{5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11} “Births, Marriages, Deaths, Etc. as Recorded by Caleb Tayor” p.23 (original page 54). Chester County, Penn., USA: The Chester County Historical Society, West Chester, Pennsylvania (no date given in this online microfilm copy at FamilySearch.org) Note: This book has not been indexed. Reprinted (onlind image) by FamilySearch.org Film number: 007724834; online image 17 of 385. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9BK-LJHM?cc=1589502&cat=235301
6. ↑ History of Chester County, Pennsylvania : with genealogical and biographical sketches / by J. Smith Futhey and Gilbert Cope. Published [Salem, Mass. : Higginson Books, 1990] Page 777
7. ↑ Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 08 May 2019), memorial page for Capt Titus Taylor (21 Nov 1755–3 Apr 1825), Find A Grave: Memorial #124769839, citing Taylor Family Burying Ground, Westtown, Chester County, Pennsylvania, USA ; Maintained by Flababo (contributor 47225301).

• Find A Grave: Memorial #124769839 for Titus Taylor Note: VR 4.6.1825 "On Sunday evening last at his residence in Westtown, TITUS TAYLOR, Esq. aged about 68 years. A citizen who was held in much esteem, and who has held the offices of County Commissioner, Treasurer, and Sheriff."
• Veteran of the American Revolution, the Northwest Indian War (it is thought), and the War of 1812, in the latter of which he captained a company

See Also

• This handwritten document comes from family archives. The writer did not date nor sign it. It is possible that the author was Hannah Rebecca Cope Plimpton. It is an extensive genealogy of the Cope line, and has been confirmed by other sources. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qTxm0M8I-T3GrY1TiJQ77laU9VGrBOOQ/view?usp=sharing