George Taylor

In America as a servant, Taylor began

His career as iron master, furnishing patriots with cannon.
 

       George Taylor was born in Ireland, year 1716.  He was the son of a respectable clergyman who died while George was yet a teen.  

        When about 20 years of age, George indentured himself (meaning the shipmaster was given the right to sell Taylor's services once he got to America to pay for his passage) and landed in Pennsylvania where he was put to work by Mr. Savage at the Warwick Iron Furnace and Coventry in Chester County.  Since George was strong and husky, he started out shoveling coal into the furnace when in blast; but Mr. Savage soon discovered that Taylor was trustworthy and also educated, more so than his other workmen.  He decided to use him in his office work where Taylor mastered the business in all its details and, after completing his indenture, remained with Mr. Savage until the latter's death in 1738.

       Upon the death of Mr. Savage, the widow Nancy entered marriage with George Taylor and turned management of the business over to him.  They had two children--a daughter and a son. 

       George became a member of the provincial assembly in Philadelphia, 1764.  From this period until 1770 he continued to represent the county of Northampton.  After the war started, he used his business to make vast amounts of shot and other munitions of war.

       He was a member of the committee to draft the instructions of Pennsylvania delegates to the first Continental Congress, a member of the Committee of Correspondence, and of the Committee of Safety.  The committee for drafting instructions had already agreed they did not want peace at the price of dishonorable submission to arbitrary power.  As colonel of the Pennsylvania Militia in 1775, he had been appointed to replace a member of the delegation who refused to support Independence.  He served Congress through 1777.   

    "The happiness of these colonies has, during the whole course of this fatal controversy, been our first wish. Their reconciliation with Great Britain our next.  Ardently have we prayed for the accomplishment of both.  But if we must renounce the one or the other, we humbly trust in the mercies of the Supreme Governor of the universe, that we shall not stand condemned before his throne, if our choice is determined by that overruling law of self-preservation, which His divine wisdom has thought fit to implant in the hearts of his creatures."

      George Taylor died in 1781 at the age of 75.  He was identified as a Presbyterian by the Presbyterian Historical Society and the Presbyterian Church, USA.  Ian Dorion, "Table of the Religious Affiliations of American Founders," 1997.

 Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in his ways.
 For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. 

Psalms 128:1-2