Francis Taliaferro

• General Notes
  • Francis TALIAFERRO, the son of Bartholomew TALIAFERRO and wife Joane LANE was baptied at the age of eight days on January 25, 1589/90 at St. Olave's, Hart Street, London. He married Bennett HAIE by license February 3, 1613/14 at St. Savior's, Southwark, County Surrey. After the death of his first wife, sometime between late 1626 and 1647, he married secondly a woman whose given name was Miriam. He and his wife died within a week of each other; he was buried August 19, 1647, at Stepney, County Middlesex, where she had been buried on August 16. By his first wife Bennett HAIE, Francis had two children mentioned in his will. The daughter was Anne who was not married at his death. In an unusual move, in that he had a living son Robert, he named his daughter the executrix of his will. It is possible that this move may be explained by his son's having already emigrated to the colony of Virginia.
    
    By occupation, Francis was a yeoman. The obsolete definitions of yeoman include "a man possessed of small estate in land; a gentleman farmer; a freeholder of a class below the gentry, who worked his own land; 2. an attendant or manservant in a royal or noble household; 3. An assistant or subordinant, as to a sheriff; 4. one not advanced to the rank of gentleman." [NOTE]
    
    The justification for naming this as the family line of Robert TALIAFERRO, The Immigrant, is set out by WAGNER and ANDRUS as follows:
    
    Speculation on the origin of Robert TALAFERO or TOLLIVER who settled in Virginia by 1647 has ranged from Scotland where the forms TAILLEFER, TALFER, TELFER, and others are found from the thirteenth century onwards, through England where the forms include TOLVER and TULLIVER, through France to Italy where TALIAFERRA and TALIAFERRO are not uncommon. This meant that the surname in itself, being so widespread was of little use as a clue, and it was, therefore, with relief and gratitude for our good furtune that we found in the London area, the likeliest immediate place of origin for an early Virginia settler, references to members of a family of the name which appeared to fit the Virginia data perfectly.
    
    From these, as will be seen, the conclusion has now been reached that Robert the settler was the grandson of Bartholomew TALIAFERRO, a subject of the Duke of Venice, who settled in London and was made denizen in March 1562.
    
    Important points in favour of the identification were that this particular family of TALIAFERRO was the only one found mentioned in the probate records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury and of London, and that after 1647 the name entirely disappeared from these probate records. Furthermore, letters of administration of the estate of Francis TALAFERO were granted on the 20th of August 1647 to his daughter Anne, not to his son Robert, as we might have expected had he been in England at the time. Robert was then aged twenty years and nine months.
    
    Finally, the emigrant called one of his sons Francis.[NOTE]