DANIEL TAYLOR, son of Justice Daniel Taylor, of Saybrook, Connecticut, is said to have been born in that town, January 15, 1684 [?]*. It is probable that his mother was a daughter of Humphrey Davie, of Boston, and later of Hartford.
He studied theology, and was also engaged in teaching; for example, he was employed as schoolmaster in his native town, by vote of April 23, 1713. From a later date in 1713 to 1717, he preached to the Presbyterian Church in Nissequag, a village in Smithtown, Suffolk County, Long Island, where he received a grant of land from the proprietors for his services.
In 1721, or earlier, he was settled over what was called “the Mountain Society,” or “the Church at Newark Mountains,” which had been organized about 1719 from the First Church in Newark, New Jersey, of which the Rev. Joseph Webb, Jr. (Y. C. 1715), was then pastor. This society is now included in the town of Orange. He remained in this office until his death, after a brief illness, January 8, 1747–8, in (says his tombstone) “the 57th year of his age.” He describes himself in his will (dated December 21, 1747), as “aged and infirm.”
His first wife, Jemima, died in Smithtown, April 20, 1716, aged 24 years, and is there buried.
He is said to have married again, before coming to Newark, and to have been greatly afflicted by the bodily and consequent mental weakness of his second wife, who died soon after his removal.
He had a third wife, Elizabeth, to whom he was married as early as 1726, and who after his death married a Hedden, and was living in 1765. He left four sons and three daughters.
He was ardently interested in the controversy between the East-Jersey purchasers of lands from the Indians and the agents of the proprietors who derived their claims from the sovereignty of the English crown. In this behalf he is sometimes said to have been concerned in the preparation of a pamphlet (signed by “Griffin Jenkin") printed in New York in 1745 and entitled “A Brief Vindication of the Purchassors against the Propritors in a Christian Manner.” (4°, pp. xi, 37.) [A copy is in the Library of the New Jersey Historical Society.]
In the “Publication of the Council of the Proprietors of East-New-Jersey of September 14, 1747,” he is described as “Secretary, Scribe and Councellor to the worthy Committee [of the purchasers] in their several late Performances in News Papers, Petitions,” &c.,-implying that both by his sermons and by his publications he had been active in this cause. Also, in a letter from James Alexander, the New York lawyer, dated September 1, 1747, and referring to the same purchasers, is this sentence: “I suppose Parson Taylor is the Composer of all their Papers; I should be very Glad that Sufficient Evidence were Got of it.
It is reported that under his influence his church remained Congregational during his life, being the only church continuing of that form of government in the Province.
AUTHORITIES.
Analytical Index to N. J. Colonial Documents, 196.
Barber & Howe, Historical Collections of N. J., 187.
Caulkins, Hist. of New London, 416.
Hoyt, Hist. of the 1st Presb. Church, Orange, chapter iii.
N. J. Archives, vii, 54.
N.Y. Gazette, December 14, 1747.
Prime, Hist. of L. I., 241.
R. D. Smyth, College Courant, August 8, 1868, 83.
Thompson, Hist. of L.I., i, 460.
Webster, Hist, of the Presb. Church in America, 414,583.
* The date does not appear on the town records.
