Col. John Tayloe II (28 May 1721 – 18 April 1779) was a Virginia planter and politician who served on the Virginia Governor's Council, also known as the Virginia Council of State. A colonial Colonel in the Virginia Militia, he is better remembered as an ironmaster, horse breeder, racing enthusiast and father-in-law of United States Declaration of Independence signer Francis Lightfoot Lee.
Tayloe built Mount Airy, the Neo-Palladian villa overlooking the Rappahannock River, still held and occupied by the Tayloe family in the 21st century. Tayloe, his father and namesake son were said to exemplify gentry entrepreneurship.
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Early years
Tayloe was born in Richmond County at Old House, located along the Rappahannock River, a mile west of Mount Airy. Tayloe was born to Elizabeth Gwynn, daughter of David Gwynn and Katherine Griffin, and her husband John Tayloe I (1688–1747), who became a burgess and member of the Virginia Governor's Council. He had an elder brother, William Tayloe (1716–1726), who died at age 9; a twin sister Elizabeth; and younger sister Ann Corbin Tayloe, born 25 August 1723.
He was educated in England at Cambridge, and possibly Oxford, where he was associated with Thomas Hay, Viscount Dulppin, Paymaster of the Forces during the French and Indian War and George Gordon, 3rd Earl of Aberdeen.
Career
Public life
In 1744, at the age of 23, Tayloe was a signatory of the Treaty of Lancaster, made with the Iroquois of the Six Nations. It was an effort to reduce warfare in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, where Iroquois warriors had been attacking local, less powerful tribes as well as intrepid colonists. Like his father, after holding local offices (but not serving in the House of Burgesses), Tayloe He would also serve on the Virginia Governor's Council, from 1757 until 1774, not long before his death.
Planter
After Tayloe's father died in 1747, the young man inherited an immense fortune, including 20,000 acres (8,100 ha) and 320 enslaved Africans and African Americans.
In 1748 he began building the mansion "Mount Airy," on a hilltop on the north bank of the Rappahannock River in Richmond County, in the Northern Neck of Virginia. He had inherited the plantation from his father, and it was formerly known as "Tayloe's Quarter." The new mansion was to be constructed on a different site and built from stone. This was unusual, as suitable stone was generally not available in the coastal Tidewater region of Virginia, and skilled stonecutters were rare.
A large deposit of hard gray sandstone was found on the plantation, and it was quarried for the mansion's walls. For window frames and the central pavilions on the entry, which frame the front doors and 2nd-story windows, Tayloe purchased Aquia Creek sandstone. This was similar to the stone later used for construction of the U.S. Capitol and the White House, and in the Octagon House.
Construction of Mount Airy took 10 years. In 1756, Tayloe bought the Occoquan Ironworks company, eventually running it together with the Neabsco Ironworks as one business. The Neabsco Iron Works (alternates: Neabsco Company; Neabsco Iron Foundry) was located in Woodbridge, Virginia. It was situated on 5,000 acres (2,000 ha) by the Neabsco Creek.
After abandoning the Bristol Iron Works, his father John Tayloe I had established the Neabsco Iron Foundry around 1737. The business was developed as an antebellum industrial plantation. Its activities included farming, leatherworking, milling, shipbuilding, shoemaking, and smithing. It also supplied raw materials for weaponry during the American Revolution.
He was a founding member of The Ohio Company.
"In 1748 was organized the first Ohio Company, with Thomas Lee as president. The whole enterprise, [sic], was very much a family affair. Other members were Thomas' sons, Philip Ludwell Lee and Thomas Ludwell Lee; his nephew Richard Lee; his future son-in-law, Gawin Corbin (burgess), the futue father-in-law of his son (Francis Lightfoot Lee), John Tayloe II; and such associated "Barons of the Potomac" as Lawrence, and Augustine Washington, Robert Carter II, [sic], and George William Fairfax.
Horse racing
John Tayloe II, and subsequently his sons John Tayloe III and William Henry Tayloe, operated Mount Airy as a successful thoroughbred horse stud farm. John Tayloe II owned Hero, Juniper, Single Peeper, Yorick, Traveller, Nonpareil, and imported Jenny Cameron, Jolly Roger and Childers (by Flying Childers) from England to Virginia. In December 1752, at Gloucester, his horse Selima beat Col William Byrd's "Trial", Col Tayloe's "Jenny Cameron" and "Childers", and Col Thornton's "Unnamed". It was a sweepstakes for a purse of 500 pistoles, four mile heats. This race marks the beginning of the competition between Maryland and Virginia in the annals of thoroughbreds and racing.
In April 1766, Col Tayloe's "Traveller" won with ease, beating Col Lewis Burwell III's "John Dismal" and Francis Whiting's "Janus." In October Col Tayloe's "Hero" won the purse, beating Col William Byrd's "Trial" and "Valiant," and Richard Henry Lee's "Mark Anthony." In November, at Chestertown, Maryland, a purse of 100 pistoles was competed for by the two most celebrated horses on the turf, Col Tayloe's Virginia horse "Yorick" and Sam Galloway of Tulip Hill's Maryland horse "Selim" (out of Selima).
In May 1767, Col Tayloe won the "50 Pistoles Purse" with his horse Traveller near Annapolis against: "Trial" owned by Bullen, "Regulus" Calvert, and "Ranger" (Dr. Hamilton). In the spring of 1769, Capt Littleberry Hardyman again won the purse with "Mark Anthony," beating John Tayloe's "Nonpareil" and Nathaniel Wlthoe's "Fanny Murray." In the fall of 1774, at Fredericksburg, John Tayloe's "Single Peeper" won the 50 Pound Purse, beating Benjamin Grymes' "Miss Spot," Walker Tailaferro's "Valiant," Spotswood's "Fearnaught," Charles Jones' "Regulus," Procter's "Jenny Bottom," Robert Slaughter's "Ariel", and Peter Presley' Thornton's "Ariel."
Personal life
He married Rebecca Plater, sister of George Plater, at the house of Ralph Wormly, Esq., in Middlesex County, Virginia. They had eleven children together, two of whom died in infancy; their only son was their tenth child, John Tayloe III.
Elizabeth Tayloe (1750-1825) married Edward Lloyd IV of Wye House and Chase-Lloyd House. They were the parents of Elizabeth Lloyd Harwood; Maryland governor Edward Lloyd; Maria Lloyd; Rebecca Lloyd; and Mary Tayloe Key, wife of Francis Scott Key.
Rebecca Plater Tayloe (1752-1797) married Francis Lightfoot Lee, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and resided at Menokin, a plantation given to them by John Tayloe II.
Ann Corbin Tayloe II (1753-1853) married Thomas Lomax. They had a son, John Tayloe Lomax.
Eleanor Tayloe (1756-1815) married Ralph Wormeley V and resided at Rosegill.
Mary Tayloe (1759-1803) married Mann Page, son of Ann Corbin Tayloe I, daughter of John Tayloe I. He was raised at Rosewell plantation with his brother, Virginia governor John Page, but moved to Spotsylvania County and established his own plantation, known as Mannsfield, near Fredericksburg, a near copy of Mount Airy. Their daughter Maria married Lewis Burwell.
Cathrine Griffin Tayloe (1761-1798) married Colonel Landon Carter II of Sabine Hall, great-grandson of Elizabeth Tayloe, sister of John Tayloe I.
Sarah "Salay" Tayloe (1765-1834) married Captain William Augustine Washington, son of George Washington's half-brother, Augustine Washington Jr., and his wife, Anne (née Aylett).
Jane Tayloe (1774-1816) married Robert Beverley, grandson of William Beverley.
He supported the Episcopal Church.
