Background
He was born apparently in Cumberland County, Va. , in 1766. He was the son of Samuel and Sophia Taylor.
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Creed Taylor
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As a lad he supplemented meager educational opportunities by service in the clerk's office of Cumberland County, first under Col. George Carrington, Jr. , a well-informed lawyer, and later under Miller Woodson, a man of local prominence, allied by marriage to the large body of descendants of Baron Christopher de Graffenried, landgrave of North Carolina. Leaving the clerk's office, Taylor entered upon the practice of law and soon attained a position of importance, with a high reputation as an advocate.
From "Needham, " his estate in Cumberland County, named for his wife's English ancestors, he conducted an extensive correspondence, some of which survives. With the Randolphs of "Bizarre, " especially, he maintained a lifelong intimacy, and he sponsored the entrance into public life of John Randolph of Roanoke.
In 1788 Taylor served in the House of Delegates, and from 1798 to 1805 in the state Senate, being speaker of that body in his last two terms. He represented Virginia on commissions to settle the Kentucky and Tennessee boundaries. On November 2, 1805, he was named a judge of the general court, and on June 14, 1806, was appointed chancellor of the superior court of chancery for the Richmond district to succeed Chancellor Wythe. The appointment was unanimously confirmed by the General Assembly at its next session. In 1813 the Lynchburg district was added to his jurisdiction.
He continued to reside at "Needham, " notwithstanding some controversy on that subject, and retained his chancellorship until the abolition of the separate courts of chancery in 1831. Many of his decisions on points of practice were included with the official reports of decisions by the supreme court of appeals. He participated in the establishment of the town of Farmville, and in plans for a canal connecting the waters of the Roanoke and Appomattox rivers, and was one of the commissioners to choose a site for the University of Virginia.
His latter years were troubled by financial cares and declining health. A discriminating obituary at the time of his death described Taylor's public services as "less splendid than useful, " but spoke of his private character in terms of eulogy.
Achievements
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His principal avocation consisted in the conduct, at "Needham, " of a law school at which many Virginia lawyers received their training. In 1821 the school was opened, with Taylor as "patron. " In methods, the school was characteristic of its day. The influence of the apprentice training system was not spent, procedural questions were emphasized, and the aim was to produce practitioners rather than legal scholars.
Politics
A leading figure in the Anti-Federalist movement of 1800, Taylor was nominated as a presidential elector; and on the adoption of the statewide system for choosing electors he presided over the election held in Richmond for the purpose of organizing the state. An old Republican of the school of Randolph and John Taylor of Caroline, he favored Monroe for president over Madison in 1808. But gradually, doubtless influenced by the demands of his judicial position, he seems to have withdrawn from the political scene.
Connections
Taylor, probably about 1797, married Woodson's daughter, Sally, who has come down in Virginia annals as a grande dame of her day. They had no children but adopted five, three of them the children of Taylor's nephew.
