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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