Elijah Taylor (1785-1867)

Elijah Taylor Papers acquired on Ebay

Elijah Taylor (1785-1867) was a Baltimore County tax collector, justice of the peace, and county commissioner who was property owner in Baltimore City, and employed vessels to transport goods to and from the Susquehanna and the Eastern Shore.  The papers in this collection were purchased on Ebay and were arranged for the most part in chronological order according to how they were ‘bundled and labeled’ by Taylor.  They contain records dating from 1797  (Daniel Oliver, copy of a letter) to 1894, with a Sun article by Charles Holland on Early Presbyterianism in America featuring Rehobeth Presbyterian Church (September 1933).  The bulk of the collection covers the period from 1821 to 1847.  It contains the bankruptcy petition of Basil Poll of Frederick County including the required list of his debts.  The earliest papers appear to be related to Joseph Taylor.  Elijah Taylor’s papers begin in 1820 as a Justice of the Peace for Baltimore County.  Receipts for his payment of the taxes he collected  for 1821 and 1822 for the first election district of Baltimore County are included.  Papers relating to John C. Peck and Miss Harriet Peck and their business with Taylor cover the period 1821-1822.  Financial dealings with Isaac Raven, guardian of William Stansbury, one of the heirs of Jno D. Stansbury for 1823-1824 and Joseph Hiss and Benjamin Hiss are included.  The sad story of a destitute minister, David Sharp, is documented with the names of those who gave him clothes and money to send him home in 1824 after contracting typhus while attending the General Conference of the Methodist Church that year in Baltimore.  A letter in Elijah Taylor’s hand dated August 23, 1824, documents an $80 debt he was owed.   It would appear that Taylor leased schooners such as the Rock Point, Captain Daniel Myers for whom there are extensive accounts in 1827, 28, and 29.  Taylor also collected rent in Baltimore City such as what Henry Brice owed for a house in Paca Street owned by Amelung.  There are receipts for tonnage at the public wharf in Baltimore for the Two Sisters, Captain Myers master, 1827-28;  He paid freight for wood and wheat from Port Deposit including  freight of wood for John Carroll and a large quantity of whiskey in 1827.  Captain Myers also transported wood from Nanticoke in 1828 and 1829 which was sold ‘at sundry prices’.  In 1830 he apparently purchased the Schooner Sea Flower.  In 1837 and 1838 General Tobias Stansbury paid Taylor for supplying cartloads of manure and bushels of ashes apparently for Stansbury’s son’s farm.  Taylor’s checks were drawn on the Chesapeake Bank for the late 1840s.  He apparently owned Piney Hills farm and paid for sharpening ploughs there, as well as his home farm, Mt. Pleasant which suffered a devastating fire in 1860.