Essex County was established in 1692 from the old Rappahannock County, Virginia
John Taliaferro, Sr. was born about 1654. He is called "The Ranger."
He married Sarah Smith. Sarah was the daughter of Major Lawrence Smith and Mary Debnam.
During the ensuing summer of 1682, [Cadwallder] Jones ranged the great fork of the Rappahannock with John Taliaferro, of Snow Creek, son of the Robert "Talifer" from whose house on Rappahannock Lederer had set out ten years previously. It was then, as Taliaferro afterwards testified," that they explored to "the first Heads or Springs of the Two Branches of Rappahannock," and perhaps it was then also that they anticipated the achievement of the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe and crossed the Blue Ridge to camp on the banks of the Shenandoah. (from Western Explorations in Virginia Between Leederer and Spotswood).
On September 28, 1682 his brother, Francis gave him 1,000 acres from their father's inheritance.
Sarah and John's children probably included:
Lawrence Taliaferro (1683, married Sarah Thornton),
John Taliaferro, Jr. (1685, married Mary Catlett),
Mary Taliaferro Thornton (1687, married Francis Thornton, Jr.),
Elizabeth Taliaferro Catlett (married John Catlett)
Charles Taliaferro (1690, married Ann Kemp),
Robert Taliaferro (1689, married Elizabeth Matthews),
Zachariah Taliaferro;
Richard Taliaferro (1703, married Rose Berryman), and
William Taliaferro.
They made their home at Powhatan in St. Mary's Parish, Essex County, Virginia.
John was a lieutenant in the Rangers in 1692.
In 1696, John bought 600 acres from Thomas Pannell's heirs and he was a colonel in the Essex County militia.
In 1699, he was a burgess in Essex County.
He was a justice in Essex County between 1699 and 1700.
John wrote his will in 1715 in St. Mary's Parish, Essex County,Virginia. In 1717, John, Sr. gave his son John two plantations of 1,000 acres on Snow Creek.
John died in 1720.
Old Rappahannock County Virginia was founded in 1656 from part of Lancaster County. In 1692 it was divided to form Essex and Richmond Counties.
