Madison County Friends.... Happy Thanksgiving Day 2004! I am looking for anyone who has been to the site of Hancock Taylor's Grave site near Richmond. He is an ancestor of mine and the Uncle to President Zachary Taylor. A Kentucky State Historical Marker, #1685 (Grave of Hancock Taylor) is located 1 mile west of Richmond along Kentucky State Rt. 52, Lancaster Pike. Hancock is said to be buried 7/10 (seven tenths of one mile) of a mile east of Taylors Fork (named after Hancock Taylor) of Silver Creek. Site used to have a marker, though I do not know if it is still there or not. Excerpt background info on Hancock Taylor as he relates to my 5th GGF, Peter Taylor (1746-1812) from a book that I am writing. Please E-mail me if you can help find Hancock Taylor's Grave or know where it is located! Hancock Taylor, Early Madison County Surveyor Uncle to 12th President Zachary Taylor (1784-1850) Cousin to My 5GGF, Peter Woodson Taylor (1745-1812) Even before my Oldham, Phelps, Bentley, and the rest of my Taylor ancestors would help build Fort Boonesborough Settlement in 1775 and defend it in 1778; one of my Taylor Pioneer ancestors had already set foot on land that would later be known as Richmond, Kentucky. Hancock Taylor, a deputy surveyor under William Preston, had been at the Falls of Ohio in 1769, enroute to New Orleans and was among the most distinguished of the early settlers in Louisville, where he and his brother, Col. Richard Taylor, the father of General Zachary Taylor, future 12th President of the United States, proved to be men of finest Virginia stock and prominent actors in the romantic history-making days before Kentucky became a state in 1792. Thus, Hancock is President Zachary Taylor's Uncle. In July 1774, Hancock Taylor was ambushed and seriously wounded by Indians at the mouth of the Kentucky River. His companions would assist him until they reached a point 1-¾ miles south of the present site of the city of Richmond, Kentucky in Madison County 7/10 of a mile east of a branch of Silver Creek which would later be named after him--Taylor’s Fork. Hancock Taylor would be buried at the spot that he died. My 5th Great Grandfather, Peter Woodson Taylor (1745-1812) is a cousin to President Zachary Taylor. Specifically, Frances Taylor, the sister to Peter Taylor's father, Col George F. Taylor (1711-1792), is a Grandmother to Zachary Taylor’s cousin, James Madison (1751-1836), 4th President of the United States of America. Frances is also a Great Aunt to President Zachary Taylor, because Frances Taylor’s husband, Ambrose Madison’s sister, Mary Madison, is Zachary’s Grandmother. Frances is also a 2nd Great Aunt to Peter's wife, Nancy Crossthwaite. Peter Taylor’s residence, a farm now owned by my cousin David McCord and his wife, the former Rita Anderson, is located on Finney Branch of Tate’s Creek, four miles west of Richmond, Kentucky, which was not founded as a county seat until some years later, on land which lay halfway between Tate’s Creek and Taylor’s Fork – where Hancock Taylor finally succumbed to wounds he sustained at the hands of hostile Native Americans. Kentucky State Historical Marker, #1685 (Grave of Hancock Taylor) is located 1 mile west of Richmond along Kentucky State Rt. 52, Lancaster Pike. Refer back to Chapter 17 of this book for more details on my Taylor ancestors and their Presidential ties. Later, in 1803, Hancock’s brother, Colonel Richard Taylor, then the "Commodore of the Navy" who later received a thousand acres of land in Kentucky from his country in recognition of his distinguished services, came to Richmond and with the assistance of Colonel William Rodes of Woodlawn Estate located the grave of his brother, Hancock Taylor, and erected a stone marker there. On Tuesday morning, March 24, 1925, my Great Grandmother, Minerva Cobb-Durham’s (1886-1974) first cousin, Katherine Cobb Phelps-Caperton (1866-1945), the Great Granddaughter of Peter Taylor (68 years old at the time), along with her daughter, Mrs. Paul Burnam and her little son, Rollins, age 3 ½ years (Katherine’s Grandson); Mrs. Burnam Harris (also a Great Granddaughter of Peter Taylor), and Mr. John G. Taylor (Peter Taylor direct-descendant), traveled westward down Lancaster Pike in Katherine’s car to search for the grave of Hancock Taylor, one of the earliest surveyors of Kentucky and an Uncle to President Zachary Taylor. They could not find the grave that day and believed that the marker had since disappeared. However, a week later, Paul Burnam, Mr. Erlby Taylor, and Caperton Burnam, visited the exact spot, which Mr. Taylor, although quite old now, had known since boyhood—this, the final resting place of Hancock Taylor of Orange County, Virginia. Ironically, Katherine Cobb Phelps-Caperton would later live with her husband, Col James W. Caperton, at their home—Woodlawn Estate, after the passing of Col William Rodes. The mansion still stands in Richmond, Kentucky today. Thank you! Doug Park Hurricane, WV (304) 562-4412