| Found in | NUCMC data from Westfield Athenaeum Archives for Taylor family collection, 1750-1866 (Edward Taylor was born to non-Conformist farmers in 1642. He worked as a school teacher, but as a devout Puritan, he declined to take the oath required of all Dissenters and was unable to comply with the Act of Uniformity. In his mid-20s, he emigrated to America in 1668 with letters of introduction to Increase Mather, president of Harvard College. He was admitted to Harvard as a second year student (he had spent 4 years at Cambridge) soon after arriving in America and he was one of four speakers at his commencement in 1671. Upon an urging from Thomas Dewey, Taylor came to Westfield in Dec. 1671. On the following day [after his arrival?], he preached his first sermon. He served in Westfield until his death 58 years later--as minister at the First Congregational Church, doctor, farmer, clerk, strategist to prevent Indian attacks, and poet. As such, he is considered the first "employee" of the Town (now City) of Westfield. By 1673 Taylor had a parsonage and a new, small meeting-house, built to serve also as a fort during the Indian troubles. He was ordained and the First Congregational Church was organized in 1679. Taylor created a distinguished library of about 200 books that he had copied by hand, because he was too poor to buy them. Rev. Edward Taylor and Elizabeth Fitch, daughter of the minister of Norwich, Conn., were married in 1674. She died in 1689, leaving eight children. Mr. Taylor married, in 1692, Ruth Wyllys of Hartford, Conn. She was the daughter of Samuel Wyllys, a State Senator for over thirty years. Edward and Ruth had one son and five daughters. Taylor died on June 29, 1729; he is buried in the Old Cemetery)
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