Brigadier General John Taylor - (2nd Husband of Mary Miller Lindsley)

20 October 2012 – Bath NY

Delivered by Timothy F. Taylor, at his great x 4 grandfather’s, Brigadier General John Taylor, memorial service.

 

Impact of research – formation of team, re-establishment of ties to lost branches of the family.

One of the first documents that the team discovered was a note in the Bath Historian’s office detailing some of the History of General John Taylor and his family.  In that note it states that John Taylor started as a private in the Militia.  Although we have not found any of his Militia Records prior to 1775, we have found that on October 28^th of 1775 he was promoted to 2^nd Major of the 4^th Hunterdon Regiment of the New Jersey Militia.

Revolutionary War Pension Applications detail some of his unit’s accomplishments, one of which tells of a detail from Major John Taylor’s command that was sent to patrol the Delaware River in December of 1776.  That detail was under the command of Lt. Daniel Bray and they collected boats and took them down the Delaware to a collection point out of view of the British.

On Christmas Eve of 1776, the 4^th Hunterdon participated in the Battle of Trenton.

John Taylor was promoted to Lt. Col of the 4^th Hunterdon February 1^st, 1777, and to Regimental Colonel of the 4^th, May 23^rd, 1777.

In Sept. of 1779, during the time that the Sullivan campaign had pulled several units of State Troops away from NJ, John Taylor was placed in command of a Battalion of State Troops raised to protect the NJ frontier.  He returned tothe 4^th Hunterdon after that assignment and continued in command through and after the end of the Revolution.  During the Revolution the 4^th Hunterdon participated in the major engagements and several skirmishes of the New Jersey campaign, including the battles of Springfield and Monmouth.

After the revolution, John served more than 8 years as a Freeholder of Hunterdon County, and was elected to two terms in the NJ Assembly.  John also continued as the Colonel of the 4^th Hunterdon until his promotion to Brigadier General of the newly formed Hunterdon Brigade in June of 1793.

From September 1796 through February of 1797, John Taylor placed an advertisement in the NJ Gazette that was headed as follows;

For Sale

30,000 Acres of Land

Lying between Crooked and Seneca Lakes

The advertisement goes on to describe the land, it’s trees, the maple stands and works, and the major settlements of that time.  John states that he is moving his family there in the spring and invites other families to join him.

In November 1796, John Taylor submitted his resignation as General of the Hunterdon Brigade and left NJ for Steuben County NY near the end of April of 1797, arriving in Bath probably in the mid-summer of the same year, with his 13 year old son George Washington Taylor, 15 year old daughter Elizabeth Ann Taylor, and possibly another son Joseph and his family, either bringing or joining several other NJ families, some of whom served with him in the Hunterdon Brigade.  Their names are recognized on the August 2^nd, 1797 Militia Muster Rolls which were discovered in the archive of Steuben County yesterday by a member of this research team.

By 1800 Elizabeth AnnTaylor is married to Dugald Cameron, and John Taylor is remarried to Mary Miller Lindsley, widow of Lt. Col. Eleazer Lindsley of Painted Post, an officer that John Taylor had served with in the NJ Militia.

The Bath Militia muster rolls discovered yesterday displays the signature of Geo. W. Taylor where he signed the oath of allegiance in 1808.  By 1810 George is married to Elizabeth Christina Clement, sister-in-law to Daniel Cruger and niece of Henry A. Townsend.  They live just a few houses away from Dugald& Elizabeth.

The December 24^th edition of the Geneva Gazette carried the following Obituary;

Died at Bath the 4^th instant, General John Taylor aged 67, a distinguished Patriot and Revolutionary officer.

In closing I would like to share a public comment made on August 14^th, 1780,by General Philomen Dickinson, commanding General of the NJ Militia during the Revolution.

Burial site of  Brig.General Taylor

“….Colonel John Taylor, of Hunterdon County…. has repeatedly served under my command, and I ever found him an active, spirited, attentive, good officer, whose exertions were uncommon, when the distress of America was the greatest.”

The Steuben County Historical Society is known as the Dugald  Cameron HS.