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Margarita
Van Valkenburgh Tayler
Margarita Van Valkenburgh was born in 1742. She was a twin and the daughter of Albany carpenter Jacobus and Margarita Radcliff Van Valkenburgh.
In
March 1764, she married newcomer John Tayler at the
Albany Dutch church where she was a pewholder and
occasional baptism sponsor. The marriage was childless
but these Taylers adopted Margaret - the daughter
of Margarita's sister, Eva Vernor.
These
Taylers first lived north of the Mohawk River in
Saratoga. By the outbreak of the war, they had relocated
to the city of Albany where John Tayler had purchased
a substantial home on State Street.
During
the war, "Margery" was not in good health. In 1781, John Tayler thought his wife in danger and sought to send her to the safety of Poughkeepsie. But Margarita refused because, as Tayler told governor Clinton ". . . the enemy may kill me, I therefore, am to consider her as my bodyguard."
Margarita
Van Valkenburgh Tayler died on July 16, 1796. She
had lived only fifty-three years. Her husband lived
until 1829.
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Sources: The life of Margarita Van Valkenburgh Tayler is CAP
biography number 1382. This profile is derived chiefly
from family and community-based resources.
Printed
in Clinton Papers,
7:304-5. This source includes many references to
Margaret Tayler!
By Stefan Bielinski, Colonial Albany Social History Project [http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany]
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