TAYLOR, Wilebe (Willoughby) ~ Mt. Vernon 1790 1-1-2 and Readfield 1790 1-0-0 (Revised 11.24.2020)

The Taylor farmhouse was torn down around 2010.
Was located on lot #24 on Chimney Road / route 41
a short distance over the Readfield / Mt. Vernon
town line. Said road was known in early days as the
"road from Kents Hill to Taylor's hill."
(Photo courtesy of Nancy Sharp)

Willoughby Taylor (1763-1849) born in Poplin (Freemont), NH s/o John & Elizabeth (Rowe) Taylor; m.1780 to Nancy Anna Whittier (1766-1854) d/o Moses & Anna (Webster) Whittier. The Moses Whittier house still stands on North Rd, Readfield which was known at one time as Whitcher (old spelling for Whittier) Road. Route 41 / Chimney Road was referred to as "the road from Kents Hill to Taylor's Hill" in the old deeds - no doubt referring to the hill / ridge where Willoughby's farm was located. His brother Phineas lived at the other end of the ridge, at Taylor's Mills where he and his sons Oren and John R. operated mills. John R. was 10 years younger than his cousin, Willoughby's son John,

In 1856 there was a stagecoach stop "SS" at this location per the 1856 map. Willoughby's son John owned this farm at the time. Stagecoach Road in Readfield, now known as Bean's Mills Road, is located about one mile away and was built along the shore of Torsey Pond so wagons and stagecoaches bound from Readfield to and from Mt. Vernon could avoid climbing the very steep east and north sides of Kents Hill. No doubt wagons carrying goods from Taylor's Mills in West Mt. Vernon used this route. 

Willoughby and Nancy Anna had 6 ch: 
1) Lydia Whittier 1784-1834 b. Massachusetts m.1802 Chase Cough of Mt. Vernon; 
2) John 1788-1869 b. Massachusetts m.abt.1830 Mehitable Clough. Was next to own his father's farm which he sold for $1,200 to John Haynes of Readfield in 1857. He bought Nathan Hoyt's farm in East Readfield at that time for $850 where he and Mehitable lived until their deaths; 
3) Nancy 1794-1825 m.Samuel Greeley of Readfield, a nephew of Noah Greeley of West Mt. Vernon. They resided on South Road (Colan 2020); 
4) Betsey 1796-1800; 
5) Betsey 1803-1832 b. Readfield (per her dgt's birth record). m.1826 James Ford, Jr. of East Livermore where they resided. James' father James, Sr. and grandfather Nathaniel Ford were among the early settlers on Kents Hill. Ch: 1) James III 2) Sybil Morrison Ford (named for her paternal grandmother). Both moved to Massachusetts; 
6) Moses 1806-1889 I do not find where he married. Bought part of his father's homestead in 1838 and in 1847 an additional 70 acres adjacent to it from Nathan, Phineas and Samuel Smith of Mt. Vernon and Abram Smith of Fayette. In 1850 Moses mother is living with him as are David Smith age 14 and Mary A Smith age 18. Must wonder if a connection to the four Smith men previously mentioned. In the 1850s he sold off his farm - some to his nephew Moses Clough. By 1860 he was living with another nephew, Willoughby Clough, in Readfield. Both were sons of Moses older sister Lydia (Taylor) Clough. Moses Taylor did return to live in Mt. Vernon where he was residing alone in 1880 and d.1889. More could be unearthed about him with an intense deed research as there were many other transactions.

Willoughby Taylor (spelled Wilebe) appears on the 1790 US Census in Winthrop - in the northern part that became Readfield in 1791. His listing is in East Readfield and the only one counted in the household, so I cannot be certain if it was this Willoughby. In Mt. Vernon (Washington town) on the 1790 Census he is the second person listed indicating this location. I found on the death record a grandchild that his 4th child, Betsey was b. Readfield 1803. Perhaps because this farm was so close to the town line? Or, could it be the family lived in Readfield for a few years? 

I find no connection between our Willoughby and Elias Taylor, Sr. and his family who had moved from Dunstable, NH to Maine, first to Hallowell and then to East Readfield before the Revolutionary War. Both Elias and his son John died of smallpox at Fort Ticonderoga 10 days apart in 1777. But I digress... There was no Willoughby in Elias' family, that I have found. Willoughby and his two years older brother Phineas both moved on to West Mt. Vernon and appear on the 1790 census there. Phineas  settled a short distance away from Willoughby where he established a sawmill. The proximity of this land to Phineas and to his sawmill would have been an advantage to Willoughby and the other settlers in that area, given their goal to eventually build frame houses and barns. By 1810 he and his family included: Males 1 < 10 (Moses); 1 16-25 (John); 1 45 and over (Willoughby); Females 1 < 10 (Betsey); 1 16-25 (Nancy); 1 26-44 (Nancy Anna). 

Willoughby Taylor's land in West Mt. Vernon was p/o lot #24 in the first range and closest to the Readfield town line in that part of town (Kennebec County Deeds Plan bk 3 pg 45). Taylor bought his land for $148 in 1811 from the heirs of Gov. James Bowdoin, a Kennebec Proprietor (Kennebec County deed bk 20 pg 200). Willoughby gave his residence as Mt. Vernon at that time. In 1824 he sold part of his farm to his son John for $600 - by then he owned parts of lots #24, 25, 26 (Kennebec Deed bk 61 pg 301). Fourteen years later, in 1838, Willoughby sold some if his homestead to his son Moses and the rest of his holdings to son John (Kennebec Deed bk 157 pg 381). On 4/10/1857 John Taylor sold the farm for $1,200 to John Haynes of Readfield. At that time the deed stated acreage of 70 acres and that it was the same sold to him by his father in 1824 and 1838 (Kennebec Deed bk 220 pg 50). Ten days later John Taylor sold an additional 10 acres, on the west side of route 41, for $150 to John Haynes, which included frontage on Echo Lake (Kennebec Deed bk 220 pg 51). John Haynes then his son Charles owned this farm until 1873.

After selling this farm to John Haynes, John & Mehitable (Clough) Taylor bought Noah Hoyt's 60 acre farm in East Readfield, where they lived for the remainder of their lives. Part of East Readfield was heavily populated with members of the Clough and Hoyt families. Their son George C. Taylor was b.1833 in Mt. Vernon, lived with his parents in Readfield until after 1860 when he moved to MA and signed up to serve in the Civil War. 

Willoughby, Nancy Anna, John and Mehitable, along with several Taylor family members, are buried in Lake Side Cemetery at Taylor's Mills, near "the Chimney" in West Mt. Vernon.