Henry Taylor (December 20, 1737 – June 14, 1781 ) was a planter, patriot and politician from Southampton County who represented the county in the House of Burgesses, Virginia Revolutionary conventions and Virginia House of Delegates.
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Early and family life
The son of Henry Taylor(d. 1743) of Charles City County and his wife, the former Patience Kinchen, had several brothers and sisters. Like his elder half brothers Ethelred Taylor (1699-1775) and William Taylor(d. 1772), Henry Taylor represented Southampton County in the Virginia House of Burgesses, and would be succeeded by his brother John Taylor representing Southampton County in the Virginia House of Delegates (again after a gap, his own son John having already died). His brother Kinchen Taylor (d.1771) was a merchant as well as planter. Another brother was James Taylor.
In 1758, this man married the former Temperance Peterson or Batte (1738-1798) in Brunswick County. They had at least three sons (Ethelred, John and Henry) as well as daughters Charlotte, Mary Taylor Blake and Martha.
Career
Taylor was a planter, who like his father and brothers farmed using enslaved labor (although John, who had inherited a parcel known as Indian Town would emancipate some slaves, but received others upon his remarriage). Henry Taylor also administered the estate of his merchant brother Kinchen Taylor after 1772, and in 1776 bought from his brothers Ethelred, John and James a parcel of land that had belonged to their father. Although this man had died six years before the Virginia Tax Census of 1787, his widow Temperance Taylor owned ten enslaved adult Blacks, eight between 16 and 20 years old, 4 horses and 11 cattle, as well as a 2 wheeled carriage.