Was Philip Taylor the Nephew of Benedict Arnold?
Hannah Arnold: 1742-1803
Philip Taylor: 1757-1820 (Maternal 5th
Great-Grandfather)
Patience Taylor Archibald: 1800-1834 (Maternal Fourth
Great-Grandmother)
Nancy Archibald: 1821-1912 (Maternal
Third-Great-Grandmother)
I was surprised to receive a notice from Ancestry claiming
that Benedict Arnold, infamous Revolutionary War traitor, was my husband’s 6th
Great-Granduncle. With the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of
Independence approaching, I decided it was an appropriate time to investigate
this possible connection to a major figure in the Revolutionary War.
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| Benedict Arnold |
According to the lineage line Ancestry provided, my
husband’s third-great-grandmother, Nancy Archibald, was the daughter of
Patience Taylor, who had married John Archibald in Daviess County, Kentucky in
1820.
Patience was the daughter of Philip Taylor and his wife Mary
Welsher. Patience was born in 1800 in Daviess County, Kentucky, and died in
1834.
 |
| Patience Taylor Archibald Headstone, Nalley-Taylor Family Cemetery in Buel KY |
Philip Taylor, Patience's father and my husband’s 5th
Great-Grandfather, was born in 1757 in Springfield, Pennsylvania. During the
Revolutionary War, he served in the 5th Battalion of the
Pennsylvania Continental Line. His grave marker notes his service. Following
the war, he moved to Kentucky and first married Hannah Atherton, and following
her death, married Mary Welsher in 1799. Philip died in 1829.
 | |
|
The next question is who were Philip Taylor’s parents? And
that is where the connection to Benedict Arnold starts to fray.
According to the Ancestry chart I included above, Philip’s
parents were Henry Taylor and Hannah Arnold. The chart shows that Hannah’s
parents were Benedict Arnold and wife Hannah Waterman. Benedict and Hannah’s
oldest son was named Benedict as well; Major General Benedict Arnold was born
in 1741, and his sister Hannah the following year, 1742.
There are several immediate problems with Philip Taylor’s
supposed parentage. First, Benedict and Hannah Arnold were born and raised in
Connecticut, not Pennsylvania. How would she have met Philip’s father?
Second, and more importantly, historic records are quite
clear that Benedict Arnold’s sister, Hannah, never married. She kept house for
her brother until his marriage to Margaret Mansfield in 1767, and then Hannah
remained in the household to help with their three children. Following
Margaret’s death, Hannah served as the children’s surrogate mother. She died in
Montague, Ontario in 1803, where she was living with Henry Arnold, one of
Benedict’s sons.
So how did this error come about? It appears there was
another man named Benedict Arnold living in Middletown, Connecticut, married to
a woman named Mary. They appear in church records as parents of children
Hannah, baptized in 1740; Fenner, baptized in 1738; and Patience, baptized in
1739. However, I can find no record that this other Hannah Arnold was married
to a man named Taylor. I had even attached a document written by another
Ancestry user titled “Hannah Arnold Could Not Have Been the Mother of Philip
Taylor Born Abt 1757 in Pennsylvania!!!” Why hadn’t I paid more attention to
that at the time I first read it? The author of the document fails to provide
any real proof one way or the other.
Philip Taylor’s true parentage remains murky. I looked at
records on FamilySearch, and his profile shows his father as Henry Taylor of
New Jersey and a Mary Dupuy from “British Colonies”—not very specific. The only
records attached to Mary Dupuy are birth records of children born in
Philadelphia that lack documentation. Henry Taylor died in New Jersey; there is
no proof that he ever left the state or had any children born in Pennsylvania. I
am not prepared to accept these people as Philip’s parents; there are too many
details that do not seem to fit.
Philip Taylor’s Findagrave entry has a note stating: “Phillip,
Benjamin, and Arnold were brothers, their father was Henry Taylor.” I was able
to find another Findagrave entry for Benjamin Taylor in the same area of
Kentucky. He too apparently served in the Revolution and was born in 1756, a
year before Philip. I have found no record of a brother Arnold. Philip did name
two of his sons Benjamin and Arnold, so he might have been naming them in honor
of his brothers. Without further evidence, however, these relationships are all
hypothetical.
What I can confirm is that there is no possibility that my
husband’s 5th great-grandfather Philip Taylor is Benedict Arnold’s
nephew. Thankfully, Philip Taylor was not related to a traitor; instead he was
a patriot and served honorably as a private in the Revolutionary War.
Perhaps someday I will find records that prove who Philip
Taylor’s parents were. In the meantime, I have made sure to remove the Arnolds
from our family tree.
Sources:
Findagrave entries for Philip Taylor, Patience Taylor,
Benjamin Taylor. https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2530369/memorial-search?cemeteryName=Nalley-Taylor+Family+Cemetery&page=1#sr-125151072
Kentucky Marriages, 1802-1850. Author Dodd, Jordan.
Ancestry.com.
Kentucky, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1783-1965.
Ancestry.com.
Pennsylvania, U.S., Revolutionary War Battalions and Militia
Index, 1775-1783. Philip Taylor. Ancestry.com.
