Chatham County NcArchives Biographies.....Taylor, James Fauntleroy 1791 - 1828
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Guy Potts http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00017.html#0004214 June 6, 2008, 9:58 pm

Author: NC Reports - Vol. 12

IN MEMORIAM

JAMES FAUNTLEROY TAYLOR, ATTORNEY-GENERAL

IN THE SUPREME COURT - IN MEMORY OF ATTORNEY-GENERAL TAYLOR
JUNE TERM, 1828

It is our mournful duty to record the death of JAMES FAUNTLEROY TAYLOR, 
Attorney-General of the State, which occurred during the present term, after 
an illness of a few days continuance which seemed not, to his medical 
attendants and family, to have any very alarming symptoms until a few hours 
before his dissolution. 

He was born in Chatham County, in July, 1791, at the residence of his father, 
Colonel Philip Taylor, who had served with distinction in the Revolutionary 
Army and at the close of the war bore a captain's commission in the line. He 
died when the subject of this memoir was about three years old, the youngest 
of a numerous family of children, who were thus consigned to the care of their 
surviving parent. But it pleased Providence that these arduous duties should 
devolve on a mother of singular discretion and exalted piety, whose moral 
strength was fully adequate to her increased burdens and who has reaped the 
harvest of all her cares and labor in the constant affection and gratitude of 
her children. She still lives to shed tears of affection over the early grave 
of her son; but it is not doubted that her grief is tempered and consoled by 
higher considerations than any which mortal wisdom can afford.

He received the rudiments of a classical education at the Pittsboro Academy, 
then under the direction of the Reverend William Bingham, a teacher well 
qualified to raise its reputation by the extent of his acquirements, the 
purity of his life, and the judgment by which he accommodated the discipline 
and instruction of the school to the various talents and dispositions of the 
youth. It is but common justice to those who have been instrumental in forming 
the minds of useful and eminent public men to pay a passing tribute of respect 
to their memory. This worthy man left a son who pursues with undiminished 
reputation the same honorable profession with his father.

From the academy the subject of this sketch was transferred to the University, 
where, in 1810, he received the degree of A. B., and left that institution 
with the reputation of "a ripe and good scholar."

His legal education was received in the office of Judge Nash, at Hillsboro, a 
gentleman to whom he was always devotedly attached, and for whose kindness, 
friendship, and instruction he cherished the liveliest gratitude to the last 
moment of his life.

He was admitted to the bar in 1812, and in a short time found himself in 
possession of an extensive practice, which may in general be considered a 
misfortune to a young lawyer whose term of study has been brief and limited; 
for though it may lead him to wealth, it interrupts that regular course of 
synthetic study on which only the solid reputation of science can be founded. 
A quick perception of the merits of a case, a retentive memory, and a 
remarkably sound and discriminating judgment, enabled him in some degree to 
overcome this difficulty. What he did not accurately perceive he knew where 
readily to find and as a genius can take large strides in every science, he 
could prepare himself for every emergency by disentangling the most 
complicated and digesting the most abstruse subjects. His voice was clear, 
sonorous, and well adapted to command the attention of a large audience; in 
some of its keys it was peculiarly harmonious; his pronunciation was distinct, 
nervous, and impressive; his mode of argument close, connected, and usually 
conclusive; and as he sought to inform the understanding, he was seldom from 
his object by the meteors of imagination:

   "His words bore sterling weight: nervous and strong,
   In manly tides of sense they roll'd along."

The office he held was conferred upon him by the Legislature of 1825, and he 
entered upon its duties at a time when the criminal justice of the circuit to 
which he was attached was greatly relaxed from causes which it is not our 
province to detail. He knew what exertions the duties of his office required 
from him and how much public expectation had been awakened by his appointment. 
He resolved to use every effort of study and attention to scientific details 
to render the law triumphant, and to act upon the maxim of the profound 
patriot of anitiquity, who concludes an eloquent description of law and 
liberty by saylng:

   ---Legum denique idcirco omnes servi sumus
   ut liberi esse possimus.   Cic. pro Cluen.

He continued during his brief passage through this perishable state to 
discharge the duties of the office with a zeal for the interest of justice and 
an enlightened energy of which the efforts were soon manifest in the incresed 
security of life and property and the consequent advancement of the public 
happiness. But though the sepulcher shrouds from mortal view the decaying 
relics of humanity, it should record the claim of public services to 
distinction and point out the dignity of virtue to imitation. It belongs to 
Biography, which is "History teaching by example," to enshrine the memory of 
the patriotic and the good, that the impressive lessons afforded by their 
lives may enlighten and animate those who are advancing in the same career of 
excellence.

His loss to the public will be severely felt; but to his family and friends it 
is irreparable - for all who were intimately connected with him feel that with 
him one great charm of their existence is gone, leaving a void in their hearts 
which can never be filled up. In the domestic scene, and the intercourse of 
friendship, he was in the highest degree engaging and affectionate. Here the 
warmth of his heart, the activity of his benevolence, and the buoyancy of his 
spirit displayed themselves in the most attractive forms. On his many virtues 
as a husband, a father, and a friend we could expatiate with feelings of 
sincere conviction of their existence and profound grief for their premature 
loss; but our limits forbid, and we must close this imperfect sketch, in the 
belief that his character has become the property of the country, and will 
receive ample justice from the future historian.

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