Marlpit Hall was the home of Edward Taylor a prominent citizen of Monmouth County involved in local politics. He represented Monmouth County as a delegate in the New Jersey Assembly.
”Entrance Sign"
As the American Revolution continued for many years, sides were drawn between Loyalists and Patriots. Edward Taylor was conflicted between remaining Loyal to the Crown and understanding the plight of the American Independence.
”Marlpit Hall"
In the years just prior to the war, Taylor was active in political resistance to British policies. In April 1774, he chaired Monmouth County's first county-wide meeting to "resist the British policies”.
On July 19, 1774, he chaired another important meeting. This time the meeting's purpose was to establish “a county committee of correspondence.”
The committee issued a document in protest of British policies, but it was careful to do so in a way that was ultimately respectful of the British Crown. Rather than being an argument for independence from Britain, it argued for the colonists to be treated as if they had the full rights of British citizens while remaining in the British Empire. This is clearly illustrated in the wording of the following paragraph from within the document:
"We do highly esteem and prize the happiness of being governed, and having their liberty and property secured to them, by so excellent a system of laws as that of Great Britain, the best doubtless in the universe; and they will at all times cheerfully obey and render every degree of assistance in their power to the full and just execution of them. But at the same time will with the greatest alacrity and resolution, oppose any unwarrantable innovation in them, or any addition to or alterations in the grand system which may appear unconstitutional, and consequently, inconsistent with the liberties and privileges of the descendants of free born American Britons".
”Marlpit Hall"
Taylor remained politically active and continued to serve in the New Jersey Assembly, walking the line of protesting British policies while remaining loyal to the crown. As colonial protests began to turn increasingly radical and revolutionary, with calls for American Independence, Taylor chose ultimately to remain loyal to Britain.
When the New Jersey Provincial Congress voted on June 17, 1776 to arrest the royal governor William Franklin, (yes, Benjamin Franklin's Son) Taylor opposed this revolutionary act. Ten days later, Taylor was one of twenty-six citizens whose arrest was ordered by the New Jersey Provincial Congress because their American patriotism was in question. Over the next several years, he was arrested several more times, and was put under house arrest in Marlpit Hall.
”Marlpit Hall"
For the rest of the war, he continued to live in Marlpit Hall, but his Tory sympathies had cost him the prestige and prominence he once held in the community. At one point, a vigilante group threatened to burn down his house. Edward Taylor died January 18, 1783, nine months before the Treaty of Paris officially ended the Revolutionary War. He is buried, along with his wife Mary and son Colonel George Taylor, at the Throckmorton-Lippit-Taylor Burying Ground.
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”njpatriots.org"
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