As surveyors, mill owners, publishers and public officials, the Taylor family was active in the community of early Pennsylvania. Beginning with the 1702 document “The Indians of Oakhookney,” and concluding with a livestock purchase in 1826 by Alice Frazer from Vernon G. Taylor, the collection reveals one hundred and twenty-four years of family history.

The following excerpt from Futhey & Cope’s History of Chester County, Pennsylvania (1881) traces the family genealogy:

"John Taylor, who is supposed to have come from Wiltshire, was a resident on Tinicum Island in 1684, as a lessee under Christopher Taylor. The name of his wife was Hannah, and their children, Elizabeth, Isaac, and John. He was deceased in 1688. His daughter Elizabeth was married on January 1, 1686 to Hugh Durborow, who with the rest of the family moved to Thornbury.

Jacob Taylor acquired a good education, and was engaged in teaching school in 1701, when, owing to the death of the surveyor general, he was called to take charge of that office, and about 1706 was commissioned surveyor-general. He was succeeded by Benjamin Eastburn in 1733, and retired to live with his nephew, John Taylor, in Thornbury, where he died March 2, 1745/6. For several years he prepared the necessary calculations for an almanac, together with verses of his own composition and other matter, which were published by Isaiah Warner, William Bradford, and perhaps others.

Isaac Taylor, the brother of Jacob, resided in Thornbury, and was deputy surveyor for Chester County from 1701 until his death in 1728. He married, in 1694, Martha, daughter of Philip Roman, and had children, - John, Jacob, Philip, Ann, and Mary. Ann married Samuel Savage, of Coventry, an ironmaster. Jacob married, August 13, 1728, Grace Worrilow, and had several children.

John Taylor, son of Isaac, was a physician, as was his father, and also a surveyor, both under the latter and as his successor until 1740. After this, he engaged in iron manufacture, and erected Sarum Forge, at the present Glen Mills Station, on Chester Creek. He died in 1756, leaving children, -Martha, Isaac, John, Philip, Ann and Mary. His son John married Sarah, daughter of John Worrall, of Edgmont, and left three children, - Mary, married to Persifor Frazer [1766]; Isaac, married to Elizbeth, daughter of Joseph Townsend; and Sarah, married to James Thompson.

Jacob (the Surveyor-General), who seems to have married twice, was originally known as an astronomer and mathematician who wrote the first North American mathematical publication - a guidebook to the solar and lunar eclipses for the years 1698 to 1717. He taught school in Philadelphia briefly and went on to author a yearly almanac for forty-six years. While he oversaw the Society of Friends’ Philadelphia press, and occasionally published his own almanac, many of the volumes were printed by others which enabled him to interact with colonial printers such as Regnier Jensen, John Zenger and the Bradfords. Jacob praised Ben Franklin as “an able and poetic almanac maker,” and Franklin eulogized Taylor on the cover of his 1747 edition of “Poor Richard’s Almanac.” Franklin later integrated Taylor’s two-page calendar in his own almanac.

Mary Worrilow Taylor, granddaughter of John (d. 1756), married Colonel Persifor Frazer in 1766. The Society of Friends disapproved of this marriage since Persifor was Presbyterian. Mary has been purported to reply that she was sorry that she had offended the Society, but she would never be sorry that she had married Persifor.

Isaac, son of John (d.1756) received a letter from his father in 1740 in which his father instructed him not to give credit at the shop to Elizabeth, John’s second wife."

Taylor family papers are arranged chronologically under subject and name headings.

Box 1 contains documents related to Taylor surveying careers. This includes, but is not limited to, drafts of Lord Baltimore’s Line; New Castle, Delaware; work in Philadelphia and around the Schuylkill and Susquehanna Rivers, Springton Manor, and Indian lands (“Oakhookeny”).

Also in Box 1 are legal documents and letters that relate to their county offices and personal matters. These include: letters from John Taylor to the Chester County Commissioners and Assessors concerning the county treasurer’s office, letters of James Logan to John Taylor, manuscripts documenting Thompson v. Thompson domestic abuse court case, a list of members of Concord Weekly meeting, several documents relating to John’s separation from his second wife, and a survey by Anthony Wayne.

Box 2 contains correspondence, poetry, etc. Folders 1 to 5 are papers related to Isaac Taylor which include estate papers, a deposition, a commission as well as an indenture agreement with Margarita Herner. Folders 6 to 25 contain documents related to Jacob Taylor. Correspondents include: James Logan, Nicholas Scull, Joseph Rose, and several printers, as well as family. There are also poems and some astronomical observations.

Box 3 contains documents related to John Taylor and his operation of Sarum Forge in Thornbury, including surveys and drafts, work contracts with employees and suppliers of the forge.

Dr. Stephen Harris was born September 4, 1798, to William and Mary Campbell Harris. He was the youngest of seven children and brother to Campbell, Thomas, Mary, John, William and James. After attending the Chester County Academy, he became a medical doctor upon his graduation from the University of Pennsylvania in 1819. He came back to the East Whiteland area where he served the community as their doctor.

Dr. Harris married Marianne Smith, daughter of Joseph and Mary Frazer Smith, on April 4, 1833. They had three children; Stephen, Joseph and Martha. They were founders of East Whiteland Presbyterian Church and were influential in the building of the church and parsonage.

Dr. Harris died in Philadelphia on November 18, 1851. Marianne died March 12, 1890.

Folders 1 – 6 of Harris family papers are documents related to William Harris, father of Stephen Harris. Most of these concern his time of service as captain in the East Whiteland Militia during and after the Revolutionary War.

Folders 7 – 12 are largely concerned with Dr. Stephen Harris. They include: correspondence, receipts and memorandums, real estate papers such as mortgages, deeds, leases, maps, building plot plans, surveys, and floor plan drawings. The real estate papers are for his personal and family property and for the parsonage of the East Whiteland Presbyterian Church.

Also included are matriculation cards for classes and lectures he attended at the University of Pennsylvania. According to “Sketch of the Life of Dr. William Harris,” Dr. Stephen Harris was asked to take care of his brother William’s finances as he was better with money than he. It appears that that was so as the collection also includes Dr. Stephen Harris’ involvement with accounts for Captain John Harris, Campbell Harris, the East Whiteland Presbyterian Church and Sunday School. (See Folder 18, which houses the account book, 1829-1843, of Dr. Stephen Harris, which includes children’s birthdates, estate records of Mary Todd, Capt. John Harris’ accounts, farm and employee accounts, East Whiteland Presbyterian Church and parsonage accounts.)

Folder 14 includes four letters from 1845, which document a lively correspondence between Thomas Hutchison and Reverend D. H. Emerson.

The central figure in the Quaker Roman family papers is Philip Roman who left England to settle in Chichester, Chester County, in the 1680s. According to documents in the collection, he was married at least twice. The death of his first wife and two children, sometime before June 1684, left him a widower with their remaining children, as condolence letters from Thomas and Ann Norris, Edward Harper and Edward Bayley seem to indicate. It cannot be ascertained from these documents whether they died on the voyage over or after they arrived. There is, however, a marriage certificate for Philip Roman and Sarah Bezer dated 1684.

The papers in Box 5 and 6 are arranged in chronological order; most are accompanied by typed transcripts. Consisting primarily of correspondence to members of the Quaker Roman and Beazer families, these letters shed light on the political, social, and religious climate of late 17th century England. Several letters from English relatives tell of imprisonment of Quaker friends and loved ones. A letter between Mary Coole and Sarah Beazer mentions Fisherton as the name of a prison.

The transition from new immigrants to established residents is also revealed in these letters as the topics shift from social and religious issues to economic and estate problems.

Includes letters from: William Coole, Benjamin Coole, Mary Coole, Thomas and Ann Norris, Edward Harper, Edward Bayley, Thomas Withers, William Hitchcock, Richard and Mary Walter, Cornelius Harding, John Childe.

Colonel Persifor Frazer, son of John Frazer, was born August 9, 1736, near Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. As a young man, he was involved in business with his family, but eventually migrated into the iron business and partnered with J. Vernon. After their iron business closed, he went to Sarum Forge where he worked with his future father-in-law, John Taylor.

On October 2, 1766, he married Mary, daughter of John and Sarah (Worrall) Taylor. After their marriage they moved to a farm in Thornbury Township, Chester County.

Persifor Frazer served as a delegate to the Provincial Convention in January 1775. In 1776, he was named a captain of one of the companies of the fourth regiment of Pennsylvanian troops under Anthony Wayne. Shortly after the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, he was captured by the British and imprisoned in Philadelphia. After his escape from jail, he returned to his troops and participated in the Battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778. Soon after he retired from the military, he served in various public offices, including his election to the legislature in 1781, 1782, and 1784.

Colonel Frazer died April 24, 1792 and is buried at Middletown Presbyterian Church (Delaware County, Pennsylvania). The remains of his home are now part of a park in Glen Mills.

Although the Frazer family was an integral part of Chester County history, this section of the collection contains mostly photographs (listed with Box 9 Smith family) and a few manuscripts.

Source for above: see Futhey & Cope’s History of Chester County, Pennsylvania (1881) for more information.

The Smith section of the collection consists primarily of real estate papers. There is one family letter and a document giving the lineage of the marriage of Robert and Margaret Vaughan Smith.

John Smith (d. December 19, 1765, age 79) and his wife Susanna (d. December 24, 1767, age 76), left Ireland and settled in Uwchlan Township in 1720 because of religious persecution. According to Futhey & Cope’s History of Chester County, Pennsylvania (1881), they were the parents of fifteen children. Their son Robert Smith (d. 1803, age 83), was born aboard ship during this voyage.

Robert Smith married Margaret Vaughan (d. 1822, age 87) on December 20, 1758. She was the daughter of John Vaughn of Red Lion, Uwchlan Township, Chester County. They were the parents of eleven children.

Robert inherited his father’s property and became a prominent citizen in Chester County. He served during the French and Indian War and over the years rose in rank to Colonel. During the Revolutionary War, he was called on to be the Lieutenant for Chester County. He was the county Sheriff and Justice of the Peace and served one term in the State Assembly. Robert and Mary were founding members of the Brandywine Manor Presbyterian Church.

Three of their sons, John, Jonathan, and Joseph, and one grandson, Persifor Frazer Smith (son of John), are represented in these papers along with other descendents. John was an ironmaster and owned Joanna Furnace. Jonathan was the first cashier of the Bank of Pennsylvania and then the Bank of the United States. Joseph was an iron and shipping merchant in Philadelphia. Persifor Frazer Smith was the son of John and Mary Frazer Smith. Born in 1808, Persifor graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and became a lawyer. He helped establish the First Presbyterian Church of West Chester.

Robert’s Aunt Mary also sailed from Ireland with her brother John in 1720. She married Alexander Fulton and was the grandmother of Robert Fulton.

Physical Description

3.0 Folders