When We Were Greers, Part V

by Glenn N. Holliman

More on our Day and Taylor Ancestors along the Chesapeake Bay

By the early 1700s Joppa Town was a major seaport on the Atlantic Coast. German settlers in Pennsylvania and the Scot Irish, who were filling the interior of Pennsylvania and Maryland, 'rolled' hogsheads of tobacco to the dozens of wharfs at Joppa. Below is an engraving from the Valentine Museum in Richmond, Virginia showing how Chesapeake planters moved their precious goods to port. The road from York, Pennsylvania to Joppa, Maryland was known as a 'rolling road'.


In 1724, a new town of Joppa was laid out on Taylor's Choice, in all probability part of our 9th great grandfather's Arthur Taylor's Choice (300 acres at least from the 1680s). In the photograph below ,is the historical marker with the 1960s Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in the background. In 1724, St. Johns Parish moved from Edgemore to Joppa on this site.



What do we know of our Taylor ancestors?

My generation's 8th great grandmother (8 GGM) was Anne Taylor b 1660 and married November 2, 1675 at the age of 15 to fifty year old James Greer (8th GGF) in Baltimore. Hmmm...a marriage for whose convenience? Our Anne died May 13, 1716 in Baltimore. One of their children would be John Greer, my 7th GGF.

Ann was the daughter of Arthur and Margaret Hill Taylor (9th GGPs). Margaret, our 9th GGM, has no accurate dates that I have found. Arthur was born in 1648, a bit before his parents, John and Margaret Phinney Taylor (10th GGPs) were married August 28, 1649 at St. Mary's Church, Lichfield, Stafford, England. John (10th GGF) was born 1629 and died 1675 in Baltimore.

Arthur, a successful planter, died November 1728.

More on the Greers and adjacent families in the next posting....