The Winterthur Library

 The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Winterthur, DE  19735

302-888-4600 or 800-448-3883

 

 

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

 

            Creator:          Taylor Family                                      

            Title:               Papers

            Dates:             1720-1950

            Call No.:         Col. 2

            Acc. No.:         88x208, 92x97

            Quantity:        3 boxes and 1 framed item

            Location:        17 A 2

 

 

 

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

           

The branch of the Taylor family to whom these papers relate descends from Peter Taylor, who emigrated from England to Pennsylvania in 1682.  He settled on land which later became part of the town of Media.  These papers document the history of the family from Peter Taylor's death in the early 1700s to the early 20th century.  Ezra Taylor (1781-1825) and his wife Sarah Curtis Taylor created the bulk of the papers in the collection.

 

 

SCOPE AND CONTENT

 

The collection contains manuscript and printed material tracing the growth and development of the Taylor family in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.  The documents include an inventory of Peter Taylor's estate, dated 1720; a copy of an appraisement of the goods and chattels of Nathan Taylor, dated 1800; and account books of Ezra Taylor's butchering business dated 1814-1819.  Supporting documents include a scrapbook of bonds, deeds, notes, bills, receipts, and the like that relate to Peter Taylor's descendants.  Manuscript genealogies, postcards, and other memorabilia complete the collection.

           

 

ORGANIZATION

           

Most of the financial records are in Box 1; genealogical materials, correspondence, and poetry are in Box 2.  The scrapbook containing bonds, deeds, and other items is in Box 3.

 

 

LANGUAGE OF MATERIALS

 

The materials are in English.

 

 

RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS

 

Collection is open to the public.  Copyright restrictions may apply.

 

 

PROVENANCE

           

Gift of Marshall R. T. Biddle and Ruth Taylor Biddle.

 

 

ACCESS POINTS

 

            People:

                        Taylor family - Pennsylvania - Delaware County.

                        Taylor family - Genealogy.

                        Taylor, Ezra, 1781-1825.

           

            Topics:

                        Butchers - Pennsylvania.

                        Meat industry and trade - Pennsylvania - Delaware County.

                        Slaughtering and slaughter-houses.

                        Holidays.

                        Greeting cards.

                        Manners and customs - History - Sources.

                        Home economics - Accounting.

                        Inventories of decedents' estates.

                        House furnishings - Pennsylvania - Delaware County.

                        Poetry.

                        Mourning customs.

                        Widows - Finance, Personal.

                        Marriage certificates.

                        Delaware County (Pa.) - Genealogy.

                        Delaware County (Pa.) - History \x Sources.

                        Account books.

                        Appraisals.

                        Bills of sales.

                        Deeds.

                        Genealogies.

                        Inventories.

                        Receipts.

                        Postcards

                        Invitations.

                        Poems.

                        Butchers.

           

           

NOTE ABOUT CONSERVATION:

 

Processing included arranging the loose documents and re-housing the entire collection.  Further work needs to be carried out to stabilize and repair certain documents, especially those in the scrapbook in box 3.

 

In February 2004, the memorial lithograph for Ezra Taylor was determined to be in its original frame.  Consequently, the lithograph was removed from the frame, and the frame was transferred to Map and Print Storage, where it can be studied.

 

 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

 

Location: 17 A 2

 

 

Box 1: Accounts (88x208)

 

Folder 1:          “Upper Providence Duplicate for Rode [sic] Tax for the Year 1803”: small booklet with list of residents and how much road tax each paid ; Isaac Eyre and Mr. Shearson certified it was correct, 1804, name Ezra Taylor written inside front and back covers (acc. 88x208.8a);

            miscellaneous receipts and accounts, 1803-1814, and a page from a Bible, all found inside the road tax book (acc. 88x208.8b-j)

 

Folder 2:          Accounts for Ezra Taylor, 1814-1815, 1821, mostly for beef and tallow

                        (acc. 88x208.9)

 

Folder 3:          Accounts for Ezra Taylor, 1815-1816, mostly for hides, tallow, and beef

(acc. 88x208.10; volume covered with marbled paper, with label: sold by Bennett & Walton, Phila.)

 

Folder 4:          Accounts for Ezra Taylor, June-November 1815, mostly for beef

(acc. 88x208.11; volume covered with blue paper printed with a multiplication table, sold by Bennett & Walton, but Bennett is spelled Benuet]

 

Folder 5:          Accounts for Ezra Taylor, June 1816-April 1818, mostly for beef

                        (acc. 88x208.12)

 

Folder 6:          Accounts for Ezra Taylor, June 1816-November 1818, mostly for beef

                        (acc. 88x208.13)

 

Folder 7:          Accounts for Ezra and Sarah Taylor, 1810s-1850s:

Small booklet (with blue paper covers, acc. 88x208.14a and h): results of a vendue held March 13, 1824, signed by Ezra Taylor, for home furnishings, farm equipment, livestock, no indication of whose property was being sold;

                        acc. 88x208.14e: accounts, Nov. 1818 and Feb. 1819, mostly for beef;

miscellaneous other receipts, many addressed to Sarah Taylor, for a variety of goods, including a cloak for her daughter and one cook stove (on printed billhead with illustration of a stove, 1851)

 

Folder 8:          Accounts for Ezra Taylor, 1817-1818, mostly for beef; laid into the booklet was a newspaper article about the Republican party platform, 1872

                        (acc. 88x208.15)

 

Folder 9:          Accounts for Ezra Taylor, August-October 1817, mostly for beef

                        (acc. 88x208.16)

 

Folder 10:        Accounts addressed Sarah Taylor, 1826-1850, for a wide variety of goods and services, including tuition for children, mending the Dearborn [a wagon?], mending shoes, textile fabrics, and other items

                        (acc. 88x208.6a-y)

 

Folder 11:        one side: Receipt for Elihu Curtis, 1802;

Other side: writing exercise (“Command you may your mind from play.”), and notes about laundry for John Hilsy

                        (acc. 88x208.24)

 

Folder 12:        Undated receipts; and envelopes addressed to Joseph Taylor

                        (acc. 88x208.18-19)

 

 

Box 2: Manuscripts and Printed Material (88x208, unless otherwise stated)

 

Folder 1:          Family records for descendants of Peter Taylor, to ca. 1893;

                        Also includes some poems and acrostics, dated 1861-1878

                        (acc. 88x208.7)

 

Folder 2:          "Retrospect Genealogy ... of a Branch of the Taylor Family," to ca.1890

                        (notebook with handwritten notes and newspaper clippings)

                        (acc. 88x208.52a)

 

Folder 3:          "Retrospect Genealogy ... of a Branch of the Taylor Family," second version, to ca. 1890, signed by J.C. T., 1862, but notebook has many later newspaper clippings pasted in

                        (acc. 88x208.53)

 

Folder 4:          Genealogical notes includes a copy of “an elaborate address that was sent … to Wm. G. Vernon … 1864, copied form a Washington paper”

                        (acc. 88x208.34-.37, .40),

 

Folder 5:          List of ca. 270 boys' names and ages, and sometimes with names of guardians, and home town n.d. but probably early 19th century (matriculation list for a school?)

                        (acc. 88x208.23)

 

Folder 6:          deed, Eliza White and Hannah Walters to Rachel Dalby or Dolby, 1869, for property in Winchester, Va.; also a letter from John Dole about the deed and an envelope addressed to Harriett Dolby

                        (acc. 88x208.29a-b-.30)

 

Folder 7:          Silhouette of Joseph C. Taylor, n.d.

[note: the silhouette is cut from a folded piece of paper, which could be cut apart and then there would be two silhouettes; paper is embossed Amies, Philadelphia]

                        (acc. 88x208.47)

 

Folder 8:          Poetry, “On the death of Lydia Hollinsworth, who drowned in Darby Creek, in Pennsylvania, …1787 (acc. 88x208.21a-b);

            “The Emperor and the Nobleman,” n.d. (acc. 88x208.21c-e, .27a-b) (note: the name Lathan Allen is written at the bottom of .27a)

            On the back of .27a is another poem, the title of which is difficult to make out, it is decorated with a pen and ink drawing of a strawberry plant

 

Folder 9:          Poetry, “The Wonderful Works of God,” n.d. (acc. 88x208.22a-g)

 

Folder 10:        Poetry, “Wanted a Wife” (typed copy and printed copy, from a newspaper; acc. 88x208.25a-b)

                        poem that begins “Showers of rain, dew, and mist will fall¼” n.d. (acc. 88x208.21f)

 

Folder 11:        Poetry, “Our Presidents,” ca.1889 (acc. 88x208.31);

                        Oration on the death of a friend, 1772 (acc. 88x208.32a-b)

 

Folder 12:        Poetry, Acrostic Lines on the Death of Elijah Curtis Taylor, written by JCT, Concordville, February 1847

                        (acc. 88x208.38)

 

Folder 13:        Poetry, one side: “Night,” n.d.;

                        Other side: “Lines on the Death of Elijah Curtis Taylor, son of Maris & Ellen T., died 1847”

                        (acc. 88x208.39)

 

Folder 14:        History of the swastika symbol, by Millard C. Taylor, Tuckahoe, Md., 1910, decorated on reverse with swastikas and emblems for light, good luck, life, and love

                        (acc. 88x208.28)

 

Folder 15:        Letter, Maris Taylor, Philadelphia, to brother Isaac M. Taylor, Neather Providence, Delaware County, Pa., 22 January 1850, about a job

                        (acc. 88x208.17)

 

Folder 16:        "Report of the trial of Edward Williams for the murder of his wife, ...West Chester ... Pennsylvania, at the November Term,"  (West Chester: printed by Hannum & Hemphill, 1830); name Jos. C. Taylor stenciled on front cover

                        (acc. 88x208.46)

 

Folder 17:        "Reply of Right Rev. Thomas A. Becker, D.D. Bishop of Wilmington to the assertions against the Catholic Church ..."  (Baltimore: Sun Book and Job Printing Establishment, 1878); with note on cover: “sent to me by Rachel Miller, JCT)

                        (acc. 88x208.41)

 

Folder 18;        "A Brief Description of the Mint of the United States" (Philadelphia: Stephen T. Souder, 1878); name Jos. C. Taylor stenciled on cover

                        (acc. 88x208.2)

 

Folder 19:        The Magazine of American History, Vol. 8, No. 6, June 1882 (acc. 88x208.3)

 

Folder 20:        Media, Pennsylvania, Centennial Book, [1950] (acc. 88x208.63)

 

Folder 21:        Invitations, etc. 1852-1915; includes invitations to funerals and a wedding; meeting notices, and postcards; includes three notices about the Union Chrétienne de Jeunes Gens in Geneva, Switzerland; also a photo postcard of the Hotel Townsend, postmarked Rehobeth, Del., and possibly a hotel in that place

                        (acc. 88x208.1, .43-45, .53a-b, .54a-b, .55-.57; 92x97.261-.263)

 

Folder 22:        New Year's postcards sent to Mr. and Mrs. Ezra Taylor, 1906, 1908, n.d.:

                        (acc. 92x97.2-.4)

 

Folder 23:        Valentine's Day postcards sent to Mr. and Mrs. Ezra Taylor, ca.1906-ca.1925;

                        Includes a card with Kewpies on it

                         (acc. 92x97.5-.10)

 

Folder 24:        Easter postcards sent to Mr. and Mrs. Ezra Taylor, 1907-1925

                        (acc. 92x97.17-.30)

 

Folder 25:        Thanksgiving Day postcards sent to Mr. and Mrs. Ezra Taylor, 1908-ca.1912

                        (acc. 92x97.11-.16)

 

Folder 26:        Christmas postcards sent to Mr. and Mrs. Ezra Taylor, 1906-1928

                        (acc. 92x97.31-.61)

 

Folder 27:        miscellaneous holiday and greeting postcards sent to Mr. and Mrs. Ezra Taylor, 1907-1925;

                        Includes an ethnic card (African-American) and a card with the name Sadie (Mrs. Taylor’s name), a Halloween card, and a Decoration Day card

                        (acc. 92x97.62-.74)

 

Folder 28:        Birthday postcards sent to Mr. and Mrs. Ezra Taylor, 1907-1926

                        (acc. 92x97.75-.86)

 

Folder 29:        Postcards from places, sent to Mr. and Mrs. Ezra Taylor, 1908-1913;

                        Includes a photo card from Fenwick Island, Del.

                        (acc. 92x97.87-92)

 

 

Box 3: Scrapbook and Printed Material

 

Folder 1:          Scrapbook of documents and accounts relating to Nathan, Ezra, and Sarah Taylor, 1794-1877; the scrapbook contains an assortment of original documents pertaining to the Taylor family; they are not in any particular order; the documents have been damaged by placing them in the scrapbook so this volume must be used with great care

                        (acc. 88x208.4)

 

Folder 2:          pages from Sarah Curtis Taylor’s old book, with some accounts, n.d. (not numbered);

                       

                        Inventory, Peter Taylor estate, Caln, 1720 (labeled on back as a copy, but it is actually an original document; backed with cloth, probably in early 20th century); mentions beds and bedclothes, brass and pewter, iron pots and tools, wooden ware, plough, livestock, a “woman servant having three years and four months to serve,” farm with edifice thereon, etc., not very detailed (acc. 88x208.48);

                       

                        Millard C. Taylor's Assistant Scout Master Certificate, 1914 (acc. 88x208.60)

 

Folder 3:          Color print "The Old Mill" by H. Farrer, 1901, from Sunday New York American, with backing papers from Collier's Magazine (1923) and the Pictorial Review (1925)

 

Folder 4:          Today, The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine (Media, PA centennial article), 1950

 

Folder 5:          Wilmington Morning News, (D-Day headlines), 6 June 1944

 

Folder 6:          Hand painted and framed memorial lithograph for Ezra Taylor, 1825; the lithograph was published by N. Currier of New York; “To the Memory of” is printed on a grave marker, with space left for the deceased’s name; written on the grave marker is “Ezra Taylor who departed this life 5th of May the year of our Lord 1825”

                        (acc. 92x97.1)

                        (see note above about removal and transfer of frame)

 

 

Folder on shelf:          marriage certificate of Millard C. Taylor and Hannah M. McKay, Wilmington, Delaware, June 3, 1915;  the certificate was printed by C.R. Gibson & Co., New York, copyright 1914, and the names and other information filled in [not numbered]