Family Tree Briggs » Mary Elizabeth Taliafero (1691-1720)

Persönliche Daten Mary Elizabeth Taliafero 

• Sie ist geboren im Jahr 1691 in Spotsylvania, VA.
• Sie ist verstorben im Jahr 1720 in Orange, VA, sie war 29 Jahre alt.

Familie von Mary Elizabeth Taliafero

Sie ist verheiratet mit John Catlett.

Sie haben geheiratet.

Notizen bei Mary Elizabeth Taliafero

COLONIAL TALLIAFERROS

(Continued from Issue 10)
Was Robert Taliaferro so closely associated with the Royalist cause that he had to flee for his safety? Did he leave England two days after his father's burial because he had to avoid becoming a target for Puritan retribution? Recalling that his Grandmother's family may have been close to the monarchy, it is not improbable that this was his circumstance; and it is certain that his traveling companion, Robert Lee, was among those who considered it 'prudent' to be absent from England for a while. Robert Lee's brother, Richard Lee, was a well known Loyalist and had already settled in America. In fact, he invited King Charles to come to Virginia after his escape was perfected by the McDonald Clan of the Isle of Skye. Richard Lee was vocal in his confidence that Virginia would welcome King Charles with open arms.

Robert Taliaferro and Robert Lee witnessed the will of Robert Meeks (or Week) on 1 November 1647, and it was probated three days later in York County, Virginia. So, by November 4 in that far away year, young Robert Taliaferro had landed at the port of York Towne in Virginia.

1647 was a notable year in Virginia. Captain William Claiborne had recently led an expedition against the Indians of the York basin and defeated them. The treaty negotiated with them opened the fruitful lands of the Middle Neck (the land between the York and Rappahannock Rivers) for English colonization. Thus, it was that young Robert Taliaferro and his friends, Richard and Robert Lee, looked to the north side of the York River when they searched out the land where they would build their homes.

Four years after landing at York Towne, Robert Taliaferro registered his first land patent. It was for 800 acres and was taken up in partnership with Samuel Sallate (Sallis) in the county of Gloucester on the southeast side of the Poropotanke River near the head of Attapotomoys Creek, and adjacent to the land of Oliver Green and Isaac Richardson. The Poropotanke is a tributary of the York River. Robert Taliaferro and Samuel Sallis probably selected their land, blazed their trees, and advertised it as theirs, and probably even occupied their land, a number of years before surveying and patenting process took place.

This was a period of upheaval and uncertainty in the Virginia Colony. The government in England was in disarray as Puritan leadership worked its way through the early stages of establishing governance in the person of Oliver Cromwell. In Virginia, there was a great conflict with the Indians, followed by its own period of adjustment to changes in the English government. It was not until 1651 that Richard Bennett and William Claiborne were selected by the Cromwell government to govern the Colonies during an interim period. In fact, their primary task was to "subdue" the Colonies. One of their first tasks was to require colonial citizens to sign an Oath of Loyalty.

Samuel Sallis first appears in York County records in 1646, so he, too, may have been a Royalist during England's Civil War. Judging by his early records he resided initially on the south side of the York River consistent with the division of land between white settlers and the native population at that time. He and Robert Taliaferro probably quickly selected their land and made it known after the Treaty with the Indians was signed. Richard and Robert Lee took up patents nearby.

The tract of land selected by young Robert Taliaferro and his partner was occupied by some of the principal villages of the native population in 1610 when Capt. John Smith and his band of soldiers pushed off from Jamestown to explore the Chesapeake and its rivers. Not far from the land where young Robert Taliaferro brought his young wife, Katherine Grymes, and they raised their children, Pocahuntas grew to young womanhood beside the streams that watered Virginia's Gloucester County. The area is rich in Indian lore. The natives bestowed the gift of their language to color its landscape: Mattapony ... Cappahosic ... Poropotank ... Attapotomoys Creek ... Romancoke ... Pamunkey ... Chesapeake,"Mother of Waters." Not far away, only a few miles up the Pamunky River in King William County, lies the land that was set aside for the natives in that Treaty of 1646. It is still reserved and occupied even today by a small Indian population. So intrigued and impressed by English ingenuity, Chief Powhatan asked his white neighbors to build him an English style stone chimney. Indeed a very old chimney rises above the landscape like a sentinel. Many feel that this is Chief Powhatan's chimney.

Robert Taliaferro and Samuel Sallis renewed the registration of their patent under the Cromwellian government in 1755, and Samuel Sallis patented an additional 352 acres in his own name. In a matter of a few years, Samuel Sallis enlarged his patent; and Robert Taliaferro repatented the original tract of land in his own name.

There seems to have been general misunderstanding among the various researchers of the Taliaferro family that the Robert Taliaferro's patent was located in the eastern part of Gloucester County where a later Taliaferro generation was seated. In fact, the original patent was near the western border of present Gloucester County, and positioned well inland from the Chesapeake and the York River. The northern boundary of the Taliaferro's patent was the Attapotomoys (Appomattox) Creek. Its southern boundary was the patent of Richard Lee. Both were bounded on the west by the Poropotank River.

Looking at these two water courses today, and knowing that any successful colonial planter had to have access to navigable water, one wonders why Robert Taliaferro and Richard Lee picked these properties which appear to be almost landlocked. Without the original description of the land, the surveyor might never surmise that the dry ravine at the edge of the property was once the Attapotomoys Creek and the marshy, grassy area to the west was once defined as a river. Silting of Virginia creeks and rivers is a legacy of the intensive tobacco culture that demanded fields of fresh, nutritious soil as old ones wore out. Stands of virgin timber in eastern Virginia are a rare sight. The virgin timber was burned out or felled to make way for new tobacco fields. In time the worn out soil washed into the creeks and rivers during centuries of rain and snow storms. Three hundred and fifty years ago, these streams were open and active. Colonial vessels and shallops sailed to and from the plantations that lined these Gloucester streams, thence to the port at York Towne and the Chesapeake, gateway to the Atlantic.

The land of the first Taliaferro home is high and not vulnerable to flooding, it is fertile, and could be defended easily whether the enemy approached in a Spanish galleon or massed canoes. There was also need for protection from pirates, and uneasiness about future relations with England to consider.
Selection of these protected acres reveals men of intelligence and astute judgment, qualities that marked the lives of both Robert Taliaferro and Richard Lee. Much of this property is now contained within a parcel of land known as "Marlfield" and owned by a local corporation. A local Taliaferro descendant, whose family once owned "Marlfield," helped me locate this early Taliaferro land by using maps printed by the forestry service in Gloucester in combination with the original patents.

Discovery of the details of Robert Taliaferro's life in Gloucester County VA is greatly impeded by the loss of the early county court house records. However, from other counties and from colonial government records, we can glean some information which assists us.

Robert Taliaferro married Katherine Grimes, the step-daughter of Charles Grimes. He was Rector of a Church of England parish on the south side of the York river in his early years, and later moved to the parish in present Middlesex County VA. Robert Taliaferro's home was located in Petsworth Parish in Gloucester Co, yet one searches in vain for references to the early Taliaferro family in the well preserved and published records of this parish. The Taliaferros lived fairly near the parish where Katherine Grimes Taliaferro's father ministered, so they probably carried out the baptisms of their children and fulfilled their other religious obligations at his church in Middlesex.
______________________________

Haben Sie Ergänzungen, Korrekturen oder Fragen im Zusammenhang mit Mary Elizabeth Taliafero?
Der Autor dieser Publikation würde gerne von Ihnen hören!