Summary
George Taylor was sent to Philadelphia to replace delegates who had refused to sign the Declaration. Taylor signed the engrossed copy on August 2, 1776.
George Taylor | Signer of the Declaration of Independence
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Biography
George Taylor is one of the rare examples of rags to riches in 18th century colonial history. He was born in Northern Ireland, the son of a minister. Little is known of his life before he emigrated to the colonies as a 20-year-old indentured servant in 1736. His passage to America was paid by an ironmaster at Coventry Forge near Philadelphia. In exchange, Taylor agreed to work off this debt over several years. But he rose from a simple laborer, shoveling coal for his master, to become a clerk in the furnace office. When his benefactor died in 1741, Taylor married his widow and took over management of the company. Under his leadership, the furnace company grew considerably more profitable.
Taylor’s success led to public recognition. He was appointed a captain of the militia group that Benjamin Franklin had organized to protect frontier residents from violence. In 1753, he and his wife moved to Durham where George had leased an iron works. There, he became active in public affairs and was given a two-year appointment as a Justice of the Peace in 1757, and again in 1761 and 1763.
George’s success led the Taylors to resettle in Easton, where once again he became active in civic affairs. In 1764, he entered the political sphere as a delegate to the provincial assembly.
In 1768, Ann Taylor died, and George returned to Durham in 1774. He expanded his business interests, leasing mines, quarries, forges, and blast furnaces in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. But the political situation was much on his mind.
In April of 1775, Americans and British troops exchanged fire at Lexington and Concord, and there was as much talk of independence as there was hope of reconciliation. Taylor took a stand short of calling for independence. As a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1775, he helped draft the instructions to the province’s delegates to the Continental Congress that ordered them to “dissent from, and utterly reject any propositions, should such be made, that may cause or lead to a separation from our mother country, or a change of the form of this government.”
Yet by July 20th of that year, the Assembly had changed its position and so too had George Taylor; the delegates who voted against a break with Britain were recalled and in their place five men willing to approve independence were sent to Philadelphia. George Taylor was one of those men sent to Philadelphia. He, along with George Ross, George Clymer, Dr. Benjamin Rush, and James Smith, signed the engrossed copy of Jefferson’s document when it was ready on August 2, 1776. Taylor was one of three men born in Ireland whose signatures appear on the Declaration of Independence.
In January of 1777, Taylor was chosen by Congress to preside over an Indian Treaty Conference in Easton. In March of that year, he was elected to the new Pennsylvania Supreme Executive Council, but illness prompted his retirement from office. He would not return to political life again. He died in February 1781.
When he died, it was clear that Taylor’s wealth had been greatly diminished by his support for the Revolution. He was never adequately paid for the grapeshots, cannon balls, and cannons produced at his furnace that he willingly provided to the Continental Army. In the late 1770s, he almost lost the Durham Iron Works he had leased until 1779, since the owner of the property, Joseph Galloway, had been declared a traitor for his loyalty to the King. Only the intervention of the Supreme Executive Council saved Taylor from being evicted.
In his will, Taylor left 500 pounds to his eldest grandson, and 500 pounds to Naomi Smith, his housekeeper. The rest of his estate was to be divided equally between his grandchildren and the five children he had fathered with Naomi Smith. Yet none of these bequests were ever fulfilled because his estate was judged insolvent. An inventory of his possessions revealed how drastically he had been reduced by his patriotism. His property included two slaves – one of whom was sold for 280 bushels of wheat, the other, a crippled man, sold for far less, one horse, three cows, and a 24-hour, eight-day clock with a walnut case.
