| Notes |
- The American Taft family began with Robert Taft, Sr who immigrated to Braintree, Massachusetts circa, 1675. There was early settlement at Mendon, Massachusetts circa 1669 and again in 1680 at what was later Uxbridge, after the King Phillip's
War ended. Robert's homestead was in western Mendon, in what later became Uxbridge, and his son was on the founding board of selectmen. In 1734, Benjamin Taft started an iron forge, in Uxbridge, where some of the earliest beginnings of
America's industrial revolution began. Robert Taft's son, Daniel, a justice of the peace in Mendon had a son Josiah Taft, later of Uxbridge, who died in 1756. Josiah's widow became "America's first woman voter", Lydia Chapin Taft, when she
voted in three Uxbridge town meetings. President George Washington visited Samuel Taft's Tavern in Uxbridge in 1789 on his "inaugural tour" of New England. President William Howard Taft's grandfather, Peter Rawson Taft I, was born in
Uxbridge in 1785. The Hon. Bezaleel Taft, Sr., Lydia's son, left a legacy of five generations or more of public service, including at least three generations in the state legislature of Tafts in Massachusetts. Ezra Taft Benson, Sr, a famous
Mormon pioneer, lived here between 1817
- (Research):In the month of November, 1789, Gen. George
Washington, then President of the United States,
passed a night in Uxbridge, at a tavern, kept, in his
language, by " one Taft." I need not tell you where
what was then the tavern, is now situated, nor who
occupies it. I need not express the hope that the
building may long be spared as an object of patriotism
in trust. From Hartford, General Washington
wrote on the eighth of November, 1789, on his way
home, the following letter to "Mr. Taft, near
Uxbridge, Massachusetts " :
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Abt 1640 - 1724 (~ 84 years)
