5 Facts About Founding Father George Taylor 

 

 

• Though his exact birth date is unknown, along with many details of his early life, according

• to most sources, signer of the Declaration of Independence George Taylor was born in 1716 in Northern Ireland, the son of a minister. He emigrated to America on an indenture when he was 20.

• Upon his arrival, he found employment with Samuel Savage, owner of an ironworks in Bucks County. Though starting as a manual laborer, he was soon found more useful as a clerk. After Savage's death, Taylor married his widow, Ann, with who he had two children. Later, after her death in 1768, he went on to have five more children with his housekeeper out of wedlock.

• While Taylor is a signer of the Declaration of Independence, he was not an original member of the Continental Congress and was not present when it was ratified. Having been chosen by the Pennsylvania delegation to replace a representative who refused to ratify and sign the document on July 20, he arrived in Philadelphia only in time to sign it with the rest of the delegates of August 2, 1776.

• Upon his marriage to Savage's widow, Taylor became owner of the Durham iron works. On August 2, 1775, exactly one year before the Declaration's signing, Taylor's iron works was contracted by Pennsylvania’s Committee of Safety to provide cannon shot, making Taylor's ironworks the first to supply cannon balls for the Continental troops. That year, he also served as a colonel in the Bucks County Militia and a representative for the provincial assembly.

• Taylor's service to the Continental Congress was fairly short-lived. After he was one of seven members of the Pennsylvania delegation that was not re-nominated in February of 1777, he was appointed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Executive Council, an early state legislative body formed to govern the Commonwealth under it's new constitution. However, he fell ill after only a short time, and retired from the council, ending his career of public service.

• George Taylor died at the age of 65 on February 23, 1781, at his residence in Easton, now known as the Parsons/Taylor House. He was originally interred across the street, in the cemetery of St. John's Lutheran Church. His grave was moved in 1870 to its present location in Easton Cemetery for the erection of the now-former Taylor School, on the corner of South Fourth and Ferry streets, where the church's parking lot is today.  In his will, he left ₤500 to his eldest grandson, and also ₤500 to Naomi Smith, his companion and housekeeper, "in Consideration of her great Care & Attendance on me for a Number of Years."