Taliaferro Craig

Information Regarding His Parentage

Taliaferro Craig's Illegitimate Birth
The most widespread tale about the birth of Taliaferro Craig, while varied and sometimes elaborate, boils down to this: Jane Taliaferro married John Craig, but he died before or shortly after the birth of his only son, Taliaferro Craig. No document has ever turned up to confirm any detail of this story.

Then came Anna V. Parker's book, SANDERS FAMILY OF GRASS HILLS, published in 1966 and widely distributed, in which she reported that Lewis Sanders, a distinguished grandson of Taliaferro Craig, believed that Taliaferro Craig was the illegitimate son of a woman named Craig and a seafaring Captain named Taliaferro. Sanders wrote to a first cousin, Rev. Francis Craig, son of Capt. John Craig, to inquire about the story and received a reply that was in Lewis Sanders' papers, stating: "Your inquiry in relation to the orgin of the Craig family is a somewhat delicate matter, but your statements are facts with this addition, that my grandfather's mother through life sustained an unblemished character." This letter is now part of the Lewis Sanders papers at the Filson Club Historical Society in Louisville. As I noted in the Toliver Craig bibliography that was published in Craig-Links in 1983, this story came from a reliable source, a grandson of Taliaferro Craig, and was confirmed by another grandson who was noticeably uncomfortable about it. To my mind, that made it quite reliable.

And in the past few years I've found Taliaferro's illegitimacy was confirmed by a third grandson: TOLLIVER CRAIG - HIS NOTEBOOK AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY, [edited by Mary Louise Fricke, Rt 1, Box 91-A, Kingdom City, MO 65262, 1991] is a transcription of an autobiographical sketch written by Toliver Craig III (son of Toliver Craig, Jr). It begins quite simply: "My grandfather was the illegitimate son of Jane Craig who was from Scotland and he married Mary Hawkins by whom he had Twelve Children." Mrs. Fricke writes that the former owner of the sketch, Grace West Baynham, supressed the word "illegitimate" from the typed copy she sent to H. L. Craig in 1937, which explains the unfortunate title he gave his book, DESCENDANTS OF JANE TALIAFERRO CRAIG (1958, available from University Microfilms International).

BEST EVIDENCE? THE LEWIS SANDERS GENEALOGY
Anna V. Parker's version of Taliaferro's parentage was so brief that I wanted to see the Lewis Sanders papers to see exactly what story Rev. Francis Craig was confirming. I was told repeatedly that his papers were given to the Filson Club in Louisville, but I was unable to locate them because they were cataloged only in the past few years. But in the meantime I discovered that Lewis Sanders had maintained a genealogy of the Craig and Sanders families; it's not part of the Sanders papers, it was given by Miss Parker to Kathryn Salyers, a remarkable genealogist who lives in Carrollton. Looking at it, I found that it not only had some previously unknown notes on the Taliaferro connection, but that it revealed connections of the Taliaferros to other Sanders connections, which tended to increase its credibility.

This is Lewis Sanders' version:
THE CRAIG FAMILY
"Two brothers, named Taliaferro, supposed to be Italians, came to Virginia in the beginning of the 18th Century. One of the brothers was a seafaring man, engaged in the trade from Virginia to Scotland, this brother brought over on one of his trips a young woman named Craig-- this young woman had a son by Capt. Toliver, which she named Toliver Craig. This is the head and orgin of the numerous Craig family, now spread out through Kentucky and adjoining states. Somewhere about the year 1730 Toliver married Polly Hawkins of Spotsylvania County. It is thought that Capt. Toliver the seafaring brother after a time married and settled in Spotsylvania County, Va., near Fredericksburg, from whom descended many families of Toliver in that part of the Country."

This is a summary of the Taliaferro genealogy that Sanders had compiled:
Captain Taliaferrro was the father of a child by a Miss Craig, which she named Taliaferro Craig. Captain Taliaferro had a brother named Robert Taliaferro, who "lived to be a great age, 112 years."
Robert Taliaferro was married twice. By his first wife he had a son, Samuel Taliaferro, and a daughter who married a Mr. Bowler. By his second wife, Robert had five daughters and two sons, but Lewis Sanders only gives the name of one daughter, Nancy Taliaferro.
Nancy Taliaferro was married twice, first to Thomas Livingston, and they had three sons: Robert, Thomas and James Livingston, all of whom "moved to South Carolina or Georgia," according to Lewis Sanders. Nancy Taliaferro's second husband was [Valentine] Long Wharton, and their children were: Lucy, William, Sally, Benjamin, Nancy, and Fanny Wharton.
Nancy Wharton (daughter of Nancy Taliaferro) married Robert Sanders, an uncle of Lewis Sanders, and their children were: Toliver Sanders (never married), Valentine Long Wharton (never married), Thomas Livingston Sanders (never married), Benjamin Wharton Sanders, Lucy Sanders (died young), Nancy Sanders (married E. B. Bartlett), and Walker Sanders (married Louisa Flournoy). Fanny Wharton, daughter of Nancy Taliaferro and sister of Nancy Wharton Sanders, married Peter Gatewood, Jr., a first cousin of Lewis Sanders.

LEWIS SANDERS GENEALOGY - SUPPORTING EVIDENCE
JOHN AND AMY GATEWOOD AND THEIR DESCENDANTS, by Carol J. Gothberg (1987), confirms that Peter Gatewood married Fanny Wharton, daughter of a Valentine Wharton. A Lucy Ann Taliaferro is mentioned among the relations of Peter Gatewood. Lorraine Mannix sent me a note that Valentine Long Wharton, born 1720 in King George County, married Mrs. Ann Wharton in 1757 in Fauquier County, Virginia, but didn't state whether this was supposed to be a marriage record entry. A submission to the Ancestral File CD-ROM suggested that Valentine Long Wharton (1730-1799, died Scott Co., Ky.) was the son of Martha Long (born 1710 Va.) and grandson of Henry Long (1675 - 1733). Valentine Long Wharton's estate is in the records of Scott County for 1799.

Lewis Sanders' mention of the Livingstons who moved to South Carolina in confirmed in The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 22, first series, page 69, which has some notes on Virginia Livingston families, mentioning a James and Thomas Livingston who had moved to Edgefield County, South Carolina in 1793. And William Crozier's VIRGINIA COUNTY RECORDS, Spotsylvania County, 1721-1800 also confirms this, noting they were living in Edgefield County, South Carolina in 1796 when they gave Benjamin Wharton their powers-of- attorney. A July 6, 1796 power of attorney shows a Benjamin Wharton was the son of "V. Long Wharton."

Crozier's book also had a deed transaction of Robert Taliaferro and his wife Jane, of Caroline County, to Long Wharton, of County afsd, 315 acres, Sept. 21, 1772. Witnessed by James Livingston. And Crozier records an October 5, 1772 conveyance witnessed by James Livingston, giving Long Wharton's wife's name as Ann (which is often the same name as Nancy.

Caroline County, Virginia Order Books give the names of Thomas Livingston and William Bowler as co-defendants in 1756 lawsuits, and between two entries given on June 13, 1756, both relating to William Bowler, the name of Samuel Taliaferro has been scratched in, without explanantion.

THE AMERICAN GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX said there was a reference to a "Taliaferrs Livingston" in Louis C. Barfield's HISTORY OF HARRIS COUNTY GEORGIA (1961). I followed this up to find that he was a descendant of James Livingston, the son of Nancy Taliaferro and Thomas Livingston. Mrs. Barfield's book records the family of James Livingston's son John Livingston, who settled near Hamilton, Georgia. One of his daughters married Seaborn Jones Whatley, and there is a considerable amount of data about the Whatley family in Mrs. Barfield's book. Anyone who is interested can review pages 496-97, 501-02. Page 451 has several Whatley photographs. Elsewhere I've seen a reference that seemed to suggest that Taliaferro Livingston was a politician or lawyer. One Livingston correspondant wrote me that a Thomas Livingston and his wife Nancy had sons James Todd and Thomas which both had sons named Taliaferro Livingston, and that the younger Thomas's son was a lawyer in South Carolina.

And on a seperate track, not derived from Lewis Sanders, there is this intriguing tidbit from HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE CAMPBELL, PILCHER, AND ALLIED FAMILIES, by Margaret Campbell Pilcher (1911); it could be interpreted as a garbled version of Sanders' account:

"Another story is that three TALIAFERRO brothers came to Virginia from England. One died young, never having married; one was supposed to have left no children by the name TALIAFERRO, but left CRAIG descendants, he having married a widow CRAIG, taking her name for reasons satisfactory to himself and his elder brother, Robert TALIAFERRO. These two brothers were not friendly, their families having no communication with one another and when they separated they divided some family jewels. One ring, which they considered a valuable heirloom, each wanted. They decided the dispute by cutting the ring, making two complete circles, each taking one. Ex-Governor SMITH, of Georgia, a descendant of Robert TALIAFERRO, is authority for this story, saying he had seen one of the rings. These two were Robert TALIAFERRO and his brother, who took the name CRAIG."

Georgia has had two Governors named Smith, but James Milton Smith was Governor in the 1820's, so the Smith referred to is probably Hoke Smith (1855-1931), who was Governor in 1907-09 and 1911. I hope to look into Smith's background to see what his genealogical connections might be.

SPECULATION ON TALIAFERRO CRAIG'S FATHER
When looking for a seafaring "Captain Taliaferro" the name Richard Taliaferro keeps coming up. Tom Land sent me a note from the Colonial Records Database, "Answer of Richard Taliaferro, Master of the LUCANS, to allegations made by Mary Richardson (1p) Agreement to hire Richard Hollyday to serve on the ship from New Providence to Virginia and London," dated April 9, 1692. The reference to New Providence is interesting, because ENGLISH DUPLICATES OF VIRGINIA RECORDS, by L. de Cognets, Jr., (1981) names Richard Taliaferro as part-owner of a ship, the JOSEPH AND SARAH OF NEW PROVIDENCE, built in 1701, and also names him as the Master of a ship, the LINAJOS, in 1698. Some believe that Taliaferro Craig's father must be the Captain Richard Taliaferro who was called "The Pirate." He was engaged in sea trade and he served on the Court of the colony of Barbados. In 1694 he married Sarah Wingfield, daughter of John and Martha Wingfield of Barbados, the latter dying in Boston on July 29, 1709 while in Boston and leaving a large estate in America and on Barbados to her daughter Sarah. Richard died in 1715, leaving a son and three daughters. Sarah died in 1718, and their only son died in 1721 and his estate was inherited by his sister Martha Taliaferro, who was married to Thomas Turner in 1715. There were many Turner descendants. Another sister was married to Rice Hooe IV and died without issue. The source for this information said there was a Wingfield association that had some notes on this Richard Taliaferro.

Richard may have been the uncle or a near relative of the architect Richard Taliaferro of Virginia, the subject of OUR MOST SKILLFUL ARCHITECT: The Life and Work of Richard Taliaferro, by Claude Lanciano (1981). I haven't seen the book yet, but I'm told that the architect Richard was the son of a Robert Taliaferro and the nephew of a seafaring Capt. Richard Taliaferro.

CONCLUSIONS SO FAR
There is no doubt that Taliaferro Craig was illegitimate, and a genealogy kept by one of his grandsons, Lewis Sanders, states that Taliaferro's father was the seafaring brother of a Robert Taliaferro who had further familial connections with Sanders' family. Some of the details in the Taliaferro genealogy have been confirmed. Another story out of Georgia also tends to connect a line of Kentucky Craigs with a brother of Robert Taliaferro. Some are concentrating on Captain Richard Taliaferro as a the father of Taliaferro Craig.

It is my hope that further research on the known descendants of Robert Taliaferro will help isolate the identities of Robert Taliaferro and his seafaring brother.

Source:
Submitted  and compiled by:  William A. Davis

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