Rebecca, age 21, became the 3rd wife of Robert Taylor, age 54, on December 30, 1742 in Newport, RI. She was the 4th of 6 children born to Benjamin Coggeshall and Sarah Easton. Robert was a Scottish-born ship builder known to have been in Newport by 1711 when he married Patience Arnold with whom he had 5 children. Following her death in 1739 he married Elizabeth Stanton who did not survive the birth of their second child in 1742. Later that year when Robert and Rebecca married he already had 6 grandchildren as well as two children under age 2. Quite a change for his young bride !
They would soon add children of their own -- 12 more per the transcription of Robert's 1762 will published in the Rhode Island Historical Magazine. Good thing he was a wealthy
landowner operating commercial wharves in Newport and owning the land at Ochre
Point on which Cornelius Vanderbilt later built his “Breakers” mansion which
still exists today.
I question whether the youngest two children said to have been born from this marriage might be a mistake (really born to his son Robert, Jr) -- but that is an item on my to-do list for next year.
