GEORGE
TAYLOR was born in Ireland in 1716.He
is said to have been the son of a clergyman and to have received a liberal
education and begun the study of medicine.He
abandoned his studies however, to emigrate to this country in 1736 at the age of
twenty.Leaving his home
clandestinely and without money, he took passage as a redemptioner, and on his
arrival at Philadelphia, was bound to an iron manufacturer at Durham, in Chester
county Pennsylvania for a term of years.He
worked there as a clerk rather than a common laborer for the owner of the
furnace and forge.Several years
later, when his employer died, Taylor married the widow, Ann Taylor Savage, and
became proprietor of the works, which prospered under his direction.He
later formed a partnership with an acquaintance and leased a large ironworks in
Easton, Pennsylvania.Within just a
few years, he would amass a considerable fortune.
George
Taylor continued his successful business until he was forty-seven, he
then retired and moved his family to a vast estate along the Lehigh River in
Northampton County.It was here that
his interest in politics motivated the voters to send him to the Pennsylvania
assembly.He was appointed to the
committee on grievances, and engaged effectively in the debate on the revision
of the charter.Taylor held on to
his assembly seat through five annual elections, but eventually lost in 1770.He
returned to his business, which proved unprofitable under the Boston Port Act,
and he held only the offices of county judge and colonel in command of a company
of volunteers.
Returning
to Durham, he was again sent to the provincial assembly in 1775, and was placed
on the committee of safety, which would direct Pennsylvania's war efforts.He
was a member of committees on grants of the crown and military preparations.George
Taylor also became a member of the committee that was appointed to draw up
instructions for the delegates to the continental congress.These
instructions, forbidding them to vote for separation, were revoked in June 1776,
and because five of the delegates from Pennsylvania hesitated to agree to the
Declaration of Independence, others were chosen in their place on July 20.George
Taylor was one of those five new delegates.He
took his seat in congress on the day of his election, and signed his name to the
declaration with the other members when the engrossed copy of the document was
ready August 2.He made a treaty in
behalf of congress with several Indian tribes of the Susquehanna border at
Easton, where he had resided in the neighborhood of his estates in Northampton
County.
In
March 1777, George Taylor was elected to the new Supreme Executive Council of
the state, but he retired after only a few weeks on account of illness.He
then returned to Easton, Pennsylvania, where he remained "a country
gentleman."He died on February
23, 1781.
We invite you to read a transcription
of the complete text of the Declaration as presented by the National Archives.
&
The article "The
Declaration of Independence: A History,"
which provides a detailed account of the Declaration, from its drafting through
its preservation today at the National Archives.
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