George Tarry Taylor and his wife Mary Goodloe Somervell both were descended from immigrant ancestors from the United Kingdom and both lost one or both parents at a young age. Mary Goodloe Somervell's immigrant ancestor was from the estate called "Kennox" in Ayrshire, Scotland. Her parents, Frances Anderson Taylor and John Somervell died 1829 and 1831 respectively leaving Mary age 25 the eldest child, with her seven siblings ages 6-23. Her sister and her six brothers later all moved to Western Tennessee, though Willis Lewis Somervell then continued on to Arkansas.

James Taylor, the immigrant ancestor of George Tarry Taylor was from Carlisle, England and was the progenitor of a large family whose descendants included two Presidents of the United States: James Madison and Zachary Taylor. One descendant, Edmund Taylor, was a devout Methodist and some of his descendants moved to Haywood County, Tennessee and were known as "the Praying Taylors" or "The Taylors of Tabernacle." Edmund's brother, Colonel William Taylor, the grandfather of George Tarry Taylor, did not share Edmund's views and he and his descendants were known as "the Dancing Taylors." Colonel William acquired Edmund's "Taylor's Ferry plantation" in Virginia and subsequently gave portions to his three sons, Anderson Taylor, Major William "Buck" Taylor, and Captain John "Jack" Taylor. Anderson married Jane Young and their three youngest children were Jane Anderson Taylor, George Tarry Taylor, and John Young Taylor who later all moved to southwest Tennessee. Anderson Taylor died when George was 4 years old, and since his widow did not remarry and she died around 1822, Uncles "Buck" and "Jack" were influential in George's life.

On April 28, 1825 in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, George Tarry Taylor married his second cousin Mary Goodloe Somervell who was known to her cousins as "Goodloe"; a few years later his brother John Young Taylor married Goodloe's first cousin Mary Burchett Somervell. Meanwhile, reports of fertile soil beckoned those living in the vicinity of Mecklenburg County, Virginia. So this "Dancing Taylor" branch sold their lands in Virginia and North Carolina and headed to West Tennessee. Capt. Jack Taylor, his son, William Anderson Taylor, George T Taylor and Goodloe with their two young children Frances Anderson Taylor and William Henry Taylor, migrated in the fall of 1833. In the fall of 1834, Major William "Buck" Taylor, John Y. Taylor and other relatives made the journey. Capt Jack's daughter Mary Smith "Pretty Polly" Taylor and her husband Major Thomas Taylor Hunt, and George T's sister Jane with her husband Alexander Clement arrived in the 1840s.

George T. Taylor first settled in Haywood County but in 1836 he moved to Tipton County, just south of his Uncle Buck. His brother John Y also settled in Tipton County. Because of poor health, John Y traveled to Weems Springs, later known as Bon Aqua Springs resort, owned by Col William L Weems whose third wife was the aunt of John Y's wife; unfortunately John Y died there in June of 1839, and his wife died the next year. Their orphans, nine year old son George Anderson and five year old daughter Jane Eleanor Taylor were reared by Uncle George and Aunt Goodloe.

George's and Goodloe's plantation in Tipton County, Tennessee was called "Tipton" or "Tipton Hall". Around the 1970s a Somervell descendant asked a Taylor descendant the name of the plantation owned by "George Taylor", meaning George T Taylor. The respondent answered "Vineland" since that was the name of the property owned by his grandfather, George A Taylor. Subsequently George T Taylor's plantation was erroneously referred to as "Vineland". George A Taylor's Vineland home was located approximately one and a half miles to the northwest of Tipton Hall.

George T Taylor built a large plantation home which was said to have had three stories and fourteen rooms, though the house burned in 1881. Many members of the Taylor and Somervell families were buried in what was once the garden. The graves were plowed over many years ago, but a marker was placed in the 1980s by family members. There is also a sign at Old Trinity Church listing those buried in this cemetery. Unfortunately both contain errors, some of which are corrected below:

Front of stone:

Vineland Cemetery (Correction: Tipton Hall Cemetery or George T Taylor Family Cemetery)

George Tarry Taylor 1804-1886

Mary Goodloe Somervell Taylor 1805-1858

Thomas Taylor Somervell (Goodloe's brother)

Robert Park Somervell (Goodloe's brother)

Joseph John Somervell (Goodloe's brother)

Ellen G Hill Somervell (Goodloe's sister-in-law: 1st wife of Joseph John Somervell)

Catherine Weems Somervell (Correction: Given name Susan; Goodloe's sister-in-law: 2nd wife of Joseph John Somervell)

Mary Bennett Somervell (Goodloe's niece, Joseph's and Ellen's daughter who married first cousin Augustine Claiborne Somervell)

Augustine Claiborne Somervell Infant (Goodloe's grandnephew: son of Augustine Claiborne Somervell & Mary Bennett Somervell )

George Goodloe Somervell (Goodloe's nephew: Thomas' son)

John Somervell (Goodloe's nephew: Thomas' son)

Wareene Somervell Infant (Goodloe's niece: Thomas' daughter. Her sister seems to have spelled the given name Warrine)

Elizabeth Taylor Hunt Somervell (Goodloe's sister-in-law: 2nd wife of Richard)

Catherine Somervell Green (Granddaughter of both Goodloe's sister Catherine & Goodloe's brother Thomas)

Agnes Green (Goodloe's grandniece: sister Catherine's grandchild)

Fred Maclin Sexton Trinity Church (Correction: Ned Taylor, sexton Trinity Church)

Back of stone:

Frances Anderson Taylor 1825-1884

Daughter of

George Tarry And Mary Goodloe

Taylor

Mary Burchett Somervell Taylor (George T's sister-in-law: wife of John Young Taylor)

Mary Elizabeth "Mollie Bett" Taylor Brodnax (George T's & Goodloe's granddaughter, daughter of Francis)

Infant George Tarry Taylor (George T's & Goodloe's grandson, son of Francis)

James A Taylor (George T's & Goodloe's son-in-law, husband of Francis and also son of William "Buck" Taylor)

William Taylor (George T's & Goodloe's son)

There is a sign at Old-Trinity-in-the-Fields listing the burials in George T Taylor's cemetery; the names include those listed above plus also:

Col. John Wesley Clement (Col means colored, a slave to the Clements)

Polly Hunt (Correction: not buried here)

Jane Taylor Clement (Correction: not buried here; George T's sister)

History courtesy of

--The Honorable John Marshall, local historian, with permission

--Harris, Mary. Memoirs of Mary Edward Philpott Somvervell Harris In her Seventy-eighth Year October 1933. Transcribed by Maude Somervill Terry and Helen Somervill Rafferty. 1934.   (Mary Harris 1855-1934 was Goodloe's niece: Thomas' daughter)

-- Marshall, John. The Somervell-Taylor Letters. Memphis, Tennessee: John Marshall, 2010.

--Somervell Bible [No longer available at ]

­­--Somerville, William Taylor. Somervell Memories. Written about 1920. (WT Somerville (1849-1921) was Goodloe's nephew: Richard's son; grandson of William Anderson Taylor, great grandson of Captain "Jack" Taylor)

-- Worthen, Mary Frances Clement. Family Records from Old Trinity-in-the-Fields Parish Register Mason, Tennessee