Author: Timothy Lee Lunney
50-year-old Elias Taylor, Sr. of Readfield (then part of Winthrop), Maine enlisted from the Town of Winthrop in the fall of 1776 along with his 23-year-old son John Taylor into Colonel Joseph North’s 2nd Lincoln County Regiment for a term of three years. Elias Taylor served in the Continental Army as an artificer with the rank of Private in Captain Mills’ Company of Colonel Jeduthan Baldwin’s Regiment. Continental Army pay records show service from March 1 to May 31, 1777. His name appears on a list of men “not returned” attached to a petition from the inhabitants of Winthrop dated March 10, 1777 asking for consideration on account of their exposed condition. He was reported as deceased on May 29, 1777 at Fort Ticonderoga, New York. The report dated May 31, 1777 also lists his son John Taylor as deceased on May 19, 1777. Both died of smallpox and are buried at Fort Ticonderoga, New York.

Another son, 17-year-old Elias Taylor, Jr. enlisted from Winthrop on January 1, 1780 as a Private in Captain John Blount’s Company, Colonel Prime’s Regiment. He served from March 6 to September 30, 1780 under Brigadier General Wadsworth in the defense of eastern Massachusetts and survived to serve again during the War of 1812.

In gratitude for the service and sacrifice of the Taylor family in the cause of American independence, the Town of Winthrop voted to supply the widow Mary Taylor with provisions in the amount of one-half of her late husband’s wages.

Sources: MSSAR# 17356 - Andrew David Ward’s Record Copy: Continental Army Books, Vol.20, Part 1, pg.19, Massachusetts Archives; Enlistment Rolls, Vol.43, Pg.158; Massachusetts Archives, Vol.182, pg.217; Mass. Muster and Pay Rolls, Vol.35, pg.250; and North’s History of Augusta Maine, pg.944. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolutionary War, Vol. 15, pg. 425. NSSAR Patriot and Grave Record, Ancestor# P-302135. Revolutionary War Graves Register SAR 1992, pg.672. DAR Revolutionary War Ancestor Record, Ancestor# A112441. DAR Lineage Book (entry for Mrs. Mary Augusta Taylor White #164313), pg.97. The History of Augusta…by James W. North, 1870, pgs. 944-5.

Elias Taylor, the son of John and Sarah (Cummings) Taylor, was born on (entered as January) 16, 1726 at Dunstable, Massachusetts in the part which later became Hudson, New Hampshire. At the time of their marriage at Charlestown, Massachusetts on March 23, 1709 both John Taylor and Sarah Cummings were described as being “of Dunstable”.

John Taylor was born at Concord, Massachusetts in 1685 and was a grandson of the English immigrant William Taylor (one of the early settlers and Proprietors of Concord, Massachusetts around 1640). Sarah Cummings, the daughter of John and Elizabeth (Kingsley) Cummings, was born in 1690 at Dunstable. John and Sarah Taylor had seven children, of whom Elias was the sixth.

John Taylor was a prominent member of the Dunstable community; by 1718, he owned a 188-acre portion of the “Brattle Farm” in addition to extensive meadowland. He later moved to the east side of the Merrimac River where he built a garrison house on a 45-acre portion of the “Joseph Hill Farm” in the area that would later become Nottingham and Hudson, New Hampshire. In 1733, he was elected one of the first Selectman of the newly incorporated Town of Nottingham. There are records of John Taylor’s activities in the Town up until the year 1743. What happened to John and Sarah Taylor after 1743 is not recorded. “It is believed that they removed from the Town”.

Sources: Vital Records of Dunstable, Mass., pages 85, 121 and 192; Vital Records of Concord, Mass., page 32; History of Hudson, N.H. by Kimball Webster 1913, pages 86, 87, 94-97, 110, 116, 117, 128, 163, 187, 188, 194, 302, 379 and 520; Early Generations of the Founders of Old Dunstable by Ezra SI Stearns 1911, entry for John Taylor.

Elias Taylor married Mary Johnson of “Parson McGreggor’s Colony” (Londonderry, N.H.) before 1752, so it is likely that the John Taylor family still lived in New Hampshire for some time after 1743. Elias and Mary (Johnson) Taylor appear in the written records again in 1762, when they are described as already being residents of “Kennebec” with four children, when he received a grant at Cushnoc for Lot #21 on the west side of Kennebec River:

“Elias Taylor, from New Bedford was one of the earliest settlers at Cushnoc. He obtained a grant of lot No. 21, west side on the 25th of April, 1762, the earliest date of grants. He was married and had four children at that date, and probably had settled on the lot previously; he was 35 years old at that time; born in Massachusetts Jan. 16, 1727. He removed to Readfield (now Manchester) in 1772. In the fall of 1776 he enlisted in the Revolutionary army, and d. in service May 29, 1777, of small pox. Mary Johnson, his wife, was of Parson McGreggor’s colony which settled in Derry, N.H. She was b. July 26, 1780 and d. Dec. 5, 1797. 9 chil.” The History of Augusta,,, by James W. North, published in 1870, pages 944-5.

The original garrison house and tavern at Cushnoc (built in 1754) would have been the center of social life while Elias Taylor and his family lived there and still exists within historic Fort Western:

In 1771, Elias Taylor and his family resettled to Lot #238 at Winthrop, Maine (in the part later set off as East Readfield).
Elias Taylor, Sr. and Mary (Johnson) Taylor had nine children and left a remarkable legacy of public service to their country and state:
1. Deborah Taylor, born on August 27, 1752 and died on June 20, 1754.
 
2. John Taylor, born on April 24, 1754 and died in Continental Army service on May 19, 1777 of small pox at Fort Ticonderoga, New York. 

3. Sarah Taylor, born on February 26, 1757, first married on February 15, 1773 to David Clark of Hallowell and had three children. After David Clark died, Sarah married a second time to Jeremiah Jones and had one child, Col. Samuel L. Jones who died at Lawrenceburg, Indiana about 1859. On September 7, 1793 Sarah married a third time to prominent merchant trader Major William Livermore (son of Deacon Elijah Livermore the founding Proprietor of Livermore, Maine). William died in 1832 in Mississippi and Sarah died on September 3, 1838 at Hallowell. Sarah and William Livermore had three children: 1. William Livermore, born on January 8, 1794 and died in 1815 at New Orleans; 2. Sarah Phipps Livermore, born on November 13, 1799, married Colonel Andrew Masters of Hallowell, had five children and died on August 25, 1840; and 3. Danforth Phipps Livermore, born on December 20, 1804, married Emeline Spaulding on October 21, 1828 and had five children.
 
4. Mary Taylor, born on May 3, 1759, married Thomas Hinkley of Hallowell on March 10, 1781.

5. Elias Taylor, Jr., born on February 21, 1762, was the first white child to be born at Cushnoc. He moved to Readfield with his father and mother in 1771. He enlisted into the Continental Army from Winthrop on January 1, 1780 as a Private in Captain John Blount’s Company, Colonel Prime’s Regiment and served from March 6 to September 30, 1780 under Brigadier General Wadsworth in the defense of eastern Massachusetts. He married Betsey Knowlton on June 19, 1782 and had six children. Elias Taylor Jr. became a Calvinist Baptist minister and was ordained as the first pastor of the South Church at Rockwood Corner in Belgrade, Maine in September, 1810, where he served as its pastor for the next twenty-three years. He served in the War of 1812 in Captain J. Minot's Company of Lieutenant Colonel E. Sherwin's Regiment from September 14 to 25, 1814. He served as the Representative for Belgrade at the 1819 Constitutional Convention for the newly forming State of Maine. He received a military service pension from the US Congress on July 23, 1832. Elias Taylor, Jr. died on January 19, 1845 at Belgrade and was buried at Woodside Cemetery at Belgrade.

6. Anderson Taylor, born on September 21, 1763, married P. Pease of Martha’s Vineyard and had five children. In 1810, they moved to western New York State.
 
7. Joel Taylor, born on May 7, 1765.
 
8. Ann Taylor, born on September 15, 1767, married Deacon Nathaniel Blake, lived at Belgrade and had nine children.
 
9. Samuel Taylor, born on August 22, 1769, settled at Belgrade, married Mayflower descendant Elizabeth Crowell in 1791 and had ten children. He became the first Quaker leader at Belgrade in 1801. His 100-acre farm at Belgrade Hill was noted for its abundance and variety of fruit. Samuel Taylor died on May 7, 1856 at Belgrade. His son Samuel Taylor, Jr., born on September 8, 1797, became a prominent leader of the Society of Friends of New York and New England, owned several textile mills and other businesses in Maine, served as director and first president of the A&K Railroad, was a noted champion of Native American rights and vocal Abolitionist, and was one of the founders of the Oak Grove Seminary. Another son, John Taylor, born in 1801, graduated from Union College, became a prominent physician and had three wives and many children in upstate New York before he died there in 1854.

Sources: Vital Records of Hallowell, Maine, Vol. 1, Page 286; The History of Augusta,,, by James W. North, published in 1870, pages 944-5; Belgrade, Maine Vital Records, Book 1, page 22; The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 1915, Vol. LXIX; Illustrated History of Kennebec County, Maine by Henry D. Kingsbury 1892, pages 275, 295, 996, 1023, 1029 and 1030; The History of Augusta by Charles Elventon Nash 1904, pages 105 and 295.