A family farm that would endure for over 250 years had its start in the early years of the Plymouth Colony. If Richard & Ruth Taylor came back to life today they probably would be surprised to learn that the site of their humble beginnings in the early 1640s is now on the National Register of Historic Places and draws visitors from across the Cape and the country.

The original Taylor house was an “earthfast” (post in ground) hall and parlor house about 27′ by 18′ with an later 18th century addition. The hall, the larger room with the hearth, was the heart of home activity and the only heated space, while the smaller parlor was a reserved for adults. Children would have slept in the unfinished second floor.

The Taylors who lived in the house on this knoll were active in town and church affairs. The women raised large families while the men engaged in the kind of farming pursuits typical of the early years of Plymouth Colony. Richard Taylor even boasted about his plentiful corn crops according to oral tradition.

The Taylors were citizen soldiers. Richard Taylor Jr was active in the Plymouth Colony militia during King Philip’s War. During the Revolutionary War Rueben Taylor (1729 – 1785) saw militia duty at Fort Ticonderoga while his sons Samuel, Shubael and Hezekiah served in the state militia and/or the Massachusetts Line of the Continental Army.

This Revolutionary War document from June 1777 shows an underage Shubal Taylor getting his new army uniform (“A return of clothing for the men of Capt Lamont’s company in Col Bradford’s Regiment in the Continental service”) a month after he enlisted for a three year term in the same regiment where his older brother Samuel was already serving as a sergeant. In 1776, prior to his service in Bradford’s regiment, Shubal at age 13 years and 8 months served in Boston for five months in Capt Micah Hamlen’s company, Col Thomas Marshall’s regiment in the Continental service, according to military records. It was not uncommon for underage boys to join the army in the patriotic cause, but Shubal’s extreme youth was quite unusual. Records show that he was a regular soldier and not the drummer boy often seen in a stereotypical drawing depicting America’s Revolutionary War armed forces.

Somewhere along the line, perhaps in the early 18th century, Taylor men probably began to earn a living from the sea although we have no written record of that. But we do know that two boys who grew up in this house became ship masters, one of whom was the focal point of a well-known local oral history tale for his heroics in a battle with the Barbary pirates.