William Henry Tayloe (January 29, 1799 – January 7, 1871) was an American

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

owner,

horse breeder Horse breeding is reproduction in horses, and particularly the human-directed process of selective breeding of animals, particularly purebred horses of a given breed. Planned matings can be used to produce specifically desired characteristics in ...

, businessman and

land speculator In finance, speculation is the purchase of an asset (a commodity, goods, or real estate) with the hope that it will become more valuable shortly. (It can also refer to short sales in which the speculator hopes for a decline in value.) Many s ...

during the first half of the 19th century. He inherited a vast estate from his father and expanded his holdings, pioneering new territory in the

Canebrake A canebrake or canebreak is a thicket of any of a variety of ''Arundinaria'' grasses: '' A. gigantea'', '' A. tecta'' and '' A. appalachiana''. As a bamboo, these giant grasses grow in thickets up to 24 ft tall. ''A. gigantea'' is generally ...

region of

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

Birth and parentage

Tayloe was born on January 29, 1799, at

Mount Airy, Richmond County, Virginia Mount Airy, near Warsaw in Richmond County, Virginia, is the first neo-Palladian villa mid-Georgian plantation house built in the United States. It was constructed in 1764 for Colonel John Tayloe II, perhaps the richest Virginia planter of his ...

, the grand colonial estate built by his grandfather Colonel

John Tayloe II Colonel John Tayloe II (28 May 172118 April 1779) was a planter and politician, among the richest planters in colonial Virginia. He served in public office including the Virginia Governor's Council, also known as the Virginia Council of State. ...

and then current residence of his father Colonel

John Tayloe III John Tayloe III (September 2, 1770March 23, 1828), of Richmond County, Virginia, was a planter, politician, businessman, and tidewater gentry scion. He was prominent in elite social circles. A highly successful planter and thoroughbred horse b ...

, arguably the wealthiest plantation owner in the country. A year after William's birth his father built

The Octagon House The Octagon House, also known as the Colonel John Tayloe III House, is located at 1799 New York Avenue, Northwest in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C. After the British destroyed the White House during the War of 1812, the house ...

in Washington, DC at the behest of

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

. His maternal grandfather was

Benjamin Ogle Benjamin Ogle (January 27, 1749 – July 7, 1809) was the ninth Governor of Maryland from 1798 to 1801. Early life The Ogle family was quite prominent for many centuries in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland, England, dating from the medieva ...

ninth In music, a ninth is a compound interval consisting of an octave plus a second. Like the second, the interval of a ninth is classified as a dissonance in common practice tonality. Since a ninth is an octave larger than a second, its ...

Governor of Maryland The Governor of the State of Maryland is the head of government of Maryland, and is the commander-in-chief of the state's National Guard units. The Governor is the highest-ranking official in the state and has a broad range of appointive powers ...

, and great-grandfather was former

Provincial governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Samuel Ogle Samuel Ogle (c. 1694 – 3 May 1752) was the 16th, 18th and 20th Proprietary Governor of Maryland from 1731 to 1732, 1733 to 1742, and 1746/1747 to 1752. Background The Ogle family was quite prominent for many centuries in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, ...

Career

After inheriting

from his father Colonel

, William, through his brother

Henry Augustine Tayloe Henry Augustine Tayloe (April 8, 1808 – July 15, 1903) was an American planter, slaveholder, horse breeder and racer, and land speculator in Alabama during the 19th century. A younger son of John Tayloe III, a wealthy planter in Washington, ...

, began acquiring and speculating in land in the

, founding with his brothers

Benjamin Ogle Tayloe Benjamin "Ogle" Tayloe (May 21, 1796 — February 25, 1868) was an American businessman, bon vivant, diplomat, scion of colonial tidewater gentry, and influential political activist in Washington, D.C. during the first half of the 19th century. ...

and

George Plater Tayloe George Plater Tayloe ( October 15, 1804 – Apr 18, 1897) was a Virginia businessman, soldier and legislator who also served as one of the original trustees of Hollins University. Early life George Tayloe was born October 15, 1804, at Mount Airy ...

Faunsdale Plantation Faunsdale Plantation is a historic forced-labor plantation near the town of Faunsdale, Alabama, United States. This plantation is in the Black Belt, a section of the state developed for cotton plantations. Until the U.S. Civil War, planters h ...

and co-owning Adventure Plantation

Marengo County, Alabama Marengo County is a County (United States), county located in the west central portion of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 19,323. The largest city is Demopolis, Alabama, Demopolis, ...

, later part of

Cuba Plantation Cuba Plantation is a historic plantation house located in Faunsdale, Alabama. It was built in 1850 by Andrew Pickens Calhoun as an overseer's house for this, his second slave plantation. He added about 420 acres to Cuba Plantation, purchased fr ...

, Larkin Plantation (

Perry County, Alabama Perry County is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,511. Its county seat is Marion. The county was established in 1819 and is named in honor of Commodore Oliver Haz ...

) and Oakland Plantation (

). After the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

Tayloe held the mortgage on Belair Mansion (Bowie, Maryland), the home of Dr. George C Ogle (1817 - 1899), son of Benjamin Ogle II and Anna Maria Cooke."Dr. Geo. C. Ogle (b. 1817 - d. 1899)." MSA SC 5496-015911 Property owner, Prince George's County, Maryland. https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc5400/sc5496/015900/015911/html/015911bio.html The property was sold to the executors of the estate of the

mortgage A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdicions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any pu ...

holder William H Tayloe, on May 16, 1871.

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tayloe, William Henry 1799 births 1871 deaths People from Richmond County, Virginia Tayloe family of Virginia American slave owners American planters