Benjamin Taliaferro

Benjamin Taliaferro (1750 - September 3, 1821) was a United States Representative from Georgia. He was born in Virginia in 1750 from an English-Italian family, the Taliaferros, who settled in Virginia in the early 17th century. He completed preparatory studies and served in the American Revolutionary War as a lieutenant in the rifle corps commanded by General Daniel Morgan. He was promoted to captain and then captured by the British at Charleston in 1780.

Taliaferro settled in Georgia in 1785. He was a member of the Georgia Senate and its president. He was a delegate to the Georgia State Constitutional Convention in 1798. He was elected as a Federalist to the 6th United States Congress and then reelected as a Republican to the 7th Congress and served from March 4, 1799, until his resignation in 1802. He was later judge of the Georgia Superior Court and a trustee for the University of Georgia. He died in Wilkes County, Georgia on September 3, 1821.

Taliaferro County, Georgia was named in his honor.

References

*CongBio|T000025
*Carol Ebel, "First Men: Changing Patterns of Leadership on the Virginia and Georgia Frontiers, 1642-181" (Ph.D. diss., University of Georgia, 1996).
*George R. Gilmer, "Sketches of Some of the First Settlers of Upper Georgia, of the Cherokees, and the Author"(1855; reprint, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 1965).
*Lee A. Wallace Jr., "The Orderly Book of Captain Benjamin Taliaferro, 2d Virginia Detachment Charleston, South Carolina, 1780" (Richmond: Virginia State Library, 1980).