George Taylor
Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
One of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, member of Continental Congress, ironmaster, lived in this house built in 1757 by William Parsons, Surveyor-General. First occupied by Parsons.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
This handsome stone house was built in 1757 by William Parsons, the Surveyor-General who laid out Easton, and first served as his own home. It later belonged to George Taylor, an ironmaster and member of the Continental Congress who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Taylor's forges helped supply the Revolution with the iron of war, and his signature bound him to the boldest gamble of the founding generation.
Why it matters
The home of a Declaration signer, it links a Pennsylvania ironmaster's furnaces to the fight for independence and preserves the memory of one of the ordinary-turned-extraordinary men who pledged their lives to the American cause.
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Related people
- · George Taylor
- · William Parsons
Related events
- · Signing of the Declaration of Independence
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Durham Furnace
Durham Township, PA · est. 1947
Built in 1727, Durham Furnace was one of colonial Pennsylvania's early ironworks, smelting local ore into iron through more than six decades of blast until 1789. In the colonial wars and again during the Revolution it cast cannon and shot for the fight, turning frontier iron into weapons of war. Among its owners were the prominent colonial statesman James Logan and George Taylor, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Brethren's House
Bethlehem, PA · est. 1964
The Moravians who founded Bethlehem built this stone house in 1748 to lodge their unmarried men, and it quickly became a hive of colonial-era craft — a bell foundry, silkworm raising, and other trades that made the community largely self-sufficient. During the Revolution it sheltered wounded Continental soldiers as a military hospital, and after 1815 it opened as a girls' school before becoming part of Moravian College and a museum.
George Taylor (1716-1781)
Catasauqua, PA · est. 1947
George Taylor, an Irish-born ironmaster who rose from indentured labor to prosperity, made his home in this handsome 1768 house along the Lehigh. Elected to Pennsylvania's provincial Assembly in 1764, he stood against royal government and was sent to the Continental Congress in July 1776, where he added his name to the Declaration of Independence. His restored home is today a National Historic Landmark.
Allentown
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