Richard Taylor (1736-1807) was living in Conetoe, Martin County, North Carolina in 1785. Richard with his first wife, Dinah, and a son, John, sold a seventy-five acre tract of land at the head of Julian’s Creek on the Southern Branch of Elizabeth River in Norfolk County, Virginia.
The decision to sell this land must have been very agonizing for Richard. The seventy-five acres had passed by primogeniture1 from his great-grandfather to his grandfather, to his father, then to him. Primogeniture was voted out in North Carolina in 1784 meaning that his estate in that state would be divided among all of his children. It was. Virginia ceded land to the federal government in 1784 indicating to Richard that he should sell his land in Virginia before they also changed their law on primogeniture.
Richard Taylor also owned land in Martin County North Carolina. He bought two-hundred fifty-one acres in 1761 and received a three-hundred acre grant in 1780 that adjoined his other land on the north. He bought one-hundred fifty acres from David Taylor in 1786 that joined his other land on the south. Richard sold two-hundred sixty acres to his brother, Thomas, in 1789.
Richard Taylor was born at the head of Julian’s Creek on the Southern Branch of Elizabeth River in Norfolk County, Virginia. He was reported in the Norfolk tithables at age sixteen in 1752 by his mother, Ann Taylor. This calculates to a birth year of 1736. Ann Taylor continued to report sons, grandsons, and negroes until the time of her death in 1779.
Ann Taylor and her daughter, Elizabeth, were in the will of Ann’s father, John Manning in 1758. The most notable items left by John Manning were his negroes. Ann (Manning) Taylor reported a negro, Hannah, in 1770, 1771, 1774, and 1778. Ann (Manning) Taylor was not in the 1780 Norfolk tithables. The will of Ann (Manning) Taylor left a full quarter share of her estate to her son, Richard. The most notable item left to Richard was a negro, Hannah, and the “child she goes with.”
Richard Taylor died in Edgecombe County, North Carolina in 1807. The most notable purchase at his estate sale was by his second wife, Charlotte. She paid a nominal sum for the negro named Hannah.
1. Also referred to as silent transfer of title. It passed to the eldest living son in each generation.