Person:Richard Taliaferro (4)

Information on Capt. Richard Taliaferro

A widely-circulated story regarding the parentage of Taliaferro (also called "Toliver") Craig, Sr. was that he was the son of Jane Taliaferro and John Craig. Based upon statements of three of Toliver Craig's grandchildren and research by several prominent researchers including Anna V. Parker ("Sanders Family of Grass Hills", pub. 1966), and editor Mary Louise Fricke ("Tolliver Craig - His Notebook and Autobiograpny", 1991), Taliaferro "Toliver" Craig, Sr. was the illegitimate son of Jane Craig and a seafaring Captain named Taliaferro.

Several researchers have identified records of a likely candidate for "Capt. Taliaferro" in Capt. Richard Taliaferro, Master of the LUCANS and part-owner of a ship, the "Joseph and Sarah" of New Providence, who was also called "The Pirate", who was engaged in sea trade and served on the Court of the colony of Barbados. In 1694 he married Sarah Wingfield, daughter of John and Martha Wingfield of Barbados. Richard died in 1715, but not before he supposedly fathered a child with a Jane Craig, sometime abt. 1706. This was further confirmed in "Toliver Craig - His Notebook and Autobiography", a transcription of an autobiographical sketch written by Toliver Craig III (son of Toliver Craig, Jr), which begins as follows:

My grandfather (Toliver Craig) was the illegitimate son of Jane Craig who was from Scotland and he married Mary Hawkins by whom he had Twelve Children."

As the illegitimate child of (perhaps) Capt. Richard Taliaferro, Taliaferro (Toliver) took his mother's name (Craig), which was somewhat more acceptable during those days.

According the genealogy that Sanders had compiled, Capt. Richard Taliaferro had a brother named Robert Taliaferro, who was married twice (one son in first marriage, five daughters and two sons in second marriage).