When thinking of old Virginia colonial homes, you tend to think in terms of Williamsburg and the James River Plantations.  Beautiful they are, but also somewhat brittle and museum like.  One of the loveliest counties in Virginia with a wealth of old homes is Gloucester County, the first county of our Taliaferro family.  Most are still family homes hiding down at the end of two-track country lanes somewhere beyond the tree line.  Here are word pictures of two Taliaferro haunts, Marlfield  and Roaring Springs located away from the water.  The family of Robert Taliaferro, the immigrant, moved away from Gloucester to "Old" Rappahannock.  Later in the 18th century, Taliaferros returned to Gloucester.

Taliaferro had three homes. He brought 1500 acres on the south side of the Rappahannock near Reverend Grymes (his father-in-law) and Henry Corbin.  The price paid was “twenty pounds in goodes, three English servants and 1 mare.”  It was purchased from Richard and Andria White. A House was located 12 1/2 miles S.E. of Fredericksburg on U.S. 17.  Marker number 8 stands to commerate Lederer's Third Expedition.  The house was two miles to the west. Mount House is located above Port Royal.  A third settlement was at Snow Creek and became a Manor Plantation. 

The "Mount"   When Robert Taliaferro acquired Taliaferro's Mount, Indian incursions in this frontier area of Virginia were not infrequent.  Shortly before Bacon's Rebellion in 1676, a fort was built at Port Royal, a few miles downstream from Taliaferro's Mount.  When danger threatened, residents gathered within the palisades of the fort.  It was at or near this fort that Col. John Catlett is reported to have been killed during an Indian raid in 1670. Tradition holds that Robert Taliaferro lost his life as a result of injuries sustained while repelling this Indian attack.  Whether or not that is true, it is certain that he was deceased before 25 November 1671 when orders of the General Court of Virginia were given to safeguard the estate for use of the orphans. 

It is believed that the Taliaferros moved to The Mount before the death of Robert Taliaferro, but this has never been confirmed.  In the cellar of an older house presently standing on Taliaferro's Mount, the outlines of a much earlier structure are visible.  The house and land were purchased in 1985 by a new owner who planned extensive renovations and archeological research of the property and structures. The drive leading from the paved road to the house set in its grove of oak trees is, dug deep into the earth four or five feet from centuries of use.  A little distance from the old house stands a grove of cedars with periwinkle lacing the  ground.  Surely this was once the site where Taliaferros were laid for their final rest.

Loc al Taliaferros relate that the gravestone of one early Taliaferro, reputedly Francis Taliaferro, was used for years as a stepping stone at the back door of the house.  Taliaferro's Mount is a high premonitory rising sharply above a deep bend on the south side of the Rappahannock River. The "gut" mentioned below is a reference to Mount Creek which flows into the Rappahannock on the east side of Taliaferro's Mount.  A narrow paved road winds its way up the rising ground from Highway #17 to the top of The Mount.

In the days before the white man came and claimed this land, Taliaferro's Mount was a lookout base for the Indian population.  Long after the end of native and immigrant warfare, Taliaferro's Mount continued in its role of lookout base, whether the enemy was John Pneumensen, a pirate, or British warships during the Revolution and War of 1812, or in the 1860s when Caroline residents gathered there to gaze in awe upon the thunderous bombardment of Fredericksburg 25 miles upstream.   Lawrence Smith and Robert Tollifer [Taliaferro] patented  6300 acres in Rappahannock Co. , in the freshes on the south side of the Rappahannock River , about 4 miles above a creek, called Ware Creek and adj. the River, Snow Creek and Nusapomucks Creek .

On March. 26, 1666 . (5, 587.) Mr. Lawrence Smith , of Gloucester Co. patented 4972 acres in Rappahannock Co. , on the south side of the river, in the freshes thereof on the lower side of Mesapponocks Creek , adj. a tract formerly granted to the said Smith and Mr. Robert Taliaferro . due for the transportation of 99 persons, 26 of whom were Negroes assigned to said Smith by Col. Warner . May 25, 1671 . (6, p. 356.)

Lands of Robert

1651   Samuel Sallate and Robert Troliver   800 acres   Gloster 200 acres upon southeast side of Poropotanke and upon northeast towards head of Attopotomoys Cr.; adjacent land of Oliver Green.  The other 600 acres upon the southwest side of a branch or swamp of said creek upon the head thereof, extending itself along the swamp which divides this and land of Isaac Richardson.

In 1655 Robert had a patent with Lawrence Smith of 6500 acres in Gloucester County.  He received another 6300 acres in 1660 for transporting 126 people.  On 12 February 1651, he received 800 acres with Samuel Sallis on the southeast side of the Poropotank River in Gloucester. He later patented another 900 acrees there .

On March 26, 1666 he patented land in old Rappahannock County on the freshes of the south side of the river and four miles above Ware Creek beginning on the east side of Snow Creek.

In 1672-3 Robert Taliaferro, Jr., "Son of Robert Taliaferro," had a grant of land on the Rappahannock River, adjoining the land of Henry Corbin and Mr. Grymes, which was due him, the said "Robert Taliaferro, Jr.," as "the grandson of Mr. Grymes."

  On June 1, 1687, Robert Taliaferro gave bond for the estate of Robert Taliaferro, deceased.  He married Sarah Catlett, daughter of Col. John Catlett and Elizabeth Underwood.  (Elizabeth Underwood was one of the step- daughters of Capt. John Upton of Isle of Wight County.  She married first Capt. Francis Slaughter of Rappahannock County.

A deed in Essex County, dated 1687, shows that Robert Taliaferro and Francis Taliaferro and their wives Sarah and Elizabeth sold 300 acres, part of the land bequeathed to said Sarah and Elizabeth by John Catlett, their father.  Later, he had 6300 acres on the east side of Snow Creek extending down river to four miles of Weire (Ware) Creek and inland to the long branch of the Massaponnax Creek.  By 1667, he had tracts up land up to the present day Fort A.P. Hill.

In 1685, there was a land parcel referred to "at head of Ware River in Gloucester, belonging to Francis Taliaferro".  The descendants have lived there virtually uninterrupted.  It is located between U.S. Route 14 and State Route 623 two miles East of Gloucester Courthouse.  A sign there reads, "Wellford-Taliaferro Wayside"

  The Poropotank cited in Robert Taliaferro's early patents is a large tributary of the Mattapony River; and the Attopotomoyes Creek is a tributary of the Poropotank.  Three hundred and fifty years ago when Robert Taliaferro and an associate, Samuel Sallis, selected this as their homesites, the Poropotank was navigable for a short distance inland.  Previously reserved for the Indians, the Gloucester land was newly opened for settlement by Englishmen when Robert Taliaferro began patenting land.  The Pamunkey Indian Reservation is not far distant from this site in Gloucester County

Robert's home in London

Robert Taliaferro was baptized at Stepney Parish Church, outside London, "aged 8 days old," on 19 November 1626.  Thus he was born on 11 November 1626.  That was twelve years after the marriage of Francis and Bennett Haie (Hay) Taliaferro.  He had an older sister, Anne.  On April 13, 1637, the family was still associated with Stepney Parish as his father, Francis Taliaferro and William Heath were appointed by the Vestry of Stepney Parish to carry out the responsibilities of "Sideman" for the year 1637 in the village of Milend.  A "Sideman" was an assistant to the Chief Warden of a Parish. Taliaferro and Heath were reappointed in 1638.

The Anglican Church began to fall somewhat in disarray during this period as the Puritan movement became a force in England leading to Civil War.  Francis Taliaferro died in 1646, the year the Puritan movement defeated the Monarchy's Army. Mile End, an ancient English village, came to be known as Bethnal Green after it was a fashionable London suburb.  It was a safe retreat for wealthy London citizens, particularly merchants who needed to live near the docks. The area was inland, north of the Thames River docks that developed around Wapping and Limelight in the 1600s.

The Poropotank cited in Robert Taliaferro's early patents is a large tributary of the Mattapony River; and the Attopotomoyes Creek is a tributary of the Poropotank.  Three hundred and fifty years ago when Robert Taliaferro and an associate, Samuel Sallis, selected this as their homesites, the Poropotank was navigable for a short distance inland.  Previously reserved for the Indians, the Gloucester land was newly opened for settlement by Englishmen when Robert Taliaferro began patenting land.  The Pamunkey Indian Reservation is not far distant from this site in Gloucester County.